Shades of Grey
by phantom and potter Obsession
Summary: When Pudding is kidnapped by the aliens and Kish is kidnapped by the mews, what will they do? How will each group treat their prisoner? And what kind of plans will be hatched? After all, they all want their friends back... Torture scenes, violence.
1. Plotting Time!

A/N- The main listed characters are Kish and Pudding, but really it's… Kish, Pudding, Tart, Ichigo, Lettuce, Keiichiro, Pai, and Ryou. It only fits two though…

Disclaimer: If I owned TMM I would publish this, not post it on a fan fiction site!

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0oo0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0oo0o0o0o0o0o

"I don't see any way out of it," Ryou Shirogane informed the group of five girls clustered around him and his computer, listening to his proposal. "It's distasteful, it's immoral, but if we're going to win this war we will have to take drastic measures."

"Shirogane-san, cut the crap and get to the point," model Zakuro Fujiwara advised waspishly.

"You want the point? All right, but you won't like it."

"Yeah, we get that. Now _what _won't we like?" Zakuro wanted to know.

Ryou sighed. "While it seems we're winning this fight—don't even open your mouth Zakuro, I'm getting to the point—it seems we are winning this fight, but in all honesty, it's at stalemate. Not to mention the alien's confidence. They're so cocky, I think they might have a secret weapon. We _have _to force them to surrender. The only way I can think of to do that is to kidnap one of them."

"Are you out of your _mind?_" exploded Mint, half angry, half laughing.

"Um… but we're supposed to be the good guys," Lettuce ventured timidly. "Wouldn't—well, wouldn't it be sinking to their level to kidnap one of the members of their team?"

"Lettuce, if you haven't noticed, this is a war," Ryou reminded the bespectacled girl. "Would you let them destroy humanity?"

"Ryou, there's a problem with your plan," Ichigo informed him, crossing her arms.

"There is?" Ryou asked. _He _didn't see any snags. "What is it?"

"They can teleport."

"Oh, that's no problem!" exclaimed Ryou. "Keiichiro and I have come up with an injection to counteract the teleporting gene for up to twenty-six hours at a time."

"So then comes the question of who they will want back the most," Zakuro mused.

"You're not agreeing to this!" Lettuce exploded, disgust evident on her features. The other five in the room turned to look at the green porpoise mew, surprised.

"It's as Shirogane-san said," Zakuro reminded her. "This is a war. All our decisions will be in shades of grey, but we have to win, no matter the cost."

"Fine. Kidnap one of them. But don't expect _me_ to have any part in this," Lettuce spat. She turned on her heel and stalked away from the group, even her braids appearing indignant as they swung behind her. When the green mew reached the threshold she spun around. "And you all don't uphold justice if you do this. You're as bad as—worse than the aliens!" Having had her say, the porpoise mew then whirled about and stormed out of the room.

There was a moment of shocked silence. They all found the idea of kidnapping distasteful, but… "She'll come around eventually," Ryou determined finally. "Everyone else in?" he inquired.

"Without a doubt," agreed Zakuro.

"I suppose so," sighed Mint in a long-suffering manner.

"We've got nothing to lose," stated Ichigo.

Only Pudding remained silent. "Pudding? Pudding, we need your take on the plan," urged Ichigo.

"I'm thinking," Pudding told her, frowning uncharacteristically. Finally, she sighed. "It's just—Kish and Taru-taru are my friends. They help me with housework and all." The monkey mew bit her lip, considering. "Fine, we can do this, but we have to be nice to whoever we get," the child conceded.

"Not if we get Kish!" Ichigo protested. "If we kidnap Kish we have to torture him."

"Sure," agreed Mint. "Because it would be more effective to torture him shirtless." The blue mew giggled atypically.

Ichigo pantomimed vomiting. "He can keep the shirt," she muttered.

"So who would be most effective to take?" Zakuro asked, glaring the other, younger girls into silence.

"Not Pai," determined Mint. "They wouldn't _want _him back!"

"So that leaves Tart and Kish," Zakuro mused, puzzling out who would be better.

"I—I can probably get Tar-tar over here pretty easily, maybe," Pudding said regretfully. "But—I just don't like it! He comes over to help me take care of my siblings. He acts grudging and all, but—"

"You've had the opportunity to kidnap Tart before and you haven't already done it?" yelped Ryou.

"Well, I didn't know I was supposed to!" Pudding cried defensively.

"Well Kish or Tart then, whoever we see first," Mint decided, trying to spare Pudding some misery. She knew the young girl had a _huge _crush on Tart.

"Great, it's decided. Now get back to work while I talk Lettuce around," Ryou ordered. With some grumbling from Mint and Ichigo they went their separate ways; the mews headed back to work, Ryou went to find Lettuce.

000ooo000ooo000ooo000

The morning after the mews decided on their plan, Kish too was hit with a stroke of brilliance. "Oi, Tart!" the older alien cried, whacking his friend with a pillow.

"Gyah!" Tart yelled, falling out of bed and landing on his butt on the floor. "What!?" he asked angrily, staring up at Kish from the ground.

"Look, I know it looks like we're losing this war, but we're not. In fact, if we _just _had a mew aqua, we could win this," Kish informed Tart, his eyes blazing.

Tart wasn't impressed. "You woke me up at seven in the morning to tell me that?" the sleep-lover asked furiously. "Why are you telling _me _this and not Pai?"

"Well… I thought it'd be less dangerous to wake _you _up before ten than Pai," Kish admitted.

"Fine, you evil baka," Tart grumbled, pushing himself to his feet. "So, oh grand genius, what do you say we do about it?" he grumped.

"Simple. To get a mew aqua, we need to hold one of the mew mews for ransom. And… well, you know, we'll have to keep it kinda secret. If Pai finds out, he'll start prepping the torture chamber." Kish glanced nervously over his shoulder as though expecting to see their oldest comrade standing there. Satisfied that the purple haired alien was asleep, the middle boy continued.

"So, I was thinking the next time Pudding invites us over to her house to help clean or baby-sit—and it doesn't matter who she invites, as long as it's one of us—we'll go over and teleport her up to the ship."

"What about all her siblings?" Tart asked worriedly.

"Oh yeah, her siblings!" Kish remembered. "Eh… we'll take turns looking after them. It's the least we can do," the emerald haired alien decided. "Why didn't we think of this before? It's brilliant!"

"I don't know why," Tart said absentmindedly, wanting to get a weighing question off his chest. "We'll—we'll be nice to her, won't we?" he asked, trying not to sound like he _cared_ or anything.

"Of course!" Kish exclaimed. "Otherwise we'd just give her straight to Pai, and that wouldn't be pretty. I mean, yeah she's our enemy, but she's also our friend. Pai's the only sadist here, and he really doesn't have to know we captured her."

"Okay," Tart agreed doubtfully. "As long as she doesn't get hurt…"

"Aha!" Kish smirked triumphantly. "_I _thought you only wanted to keep Pudding alive because you haven't seen her cry yet. So you should _want _her to get hurt. But you don't. So I can only conclude you have a _crush _on her! You _like _her! You want to _date _her! Kawaii!"

"Shut up! I meant in a fight! I haven't seen her cry in a fight! She has to stay alive until I make her cry when we're fighting!" blustered Tart, his face flaming scarlet.

"Sure, sure, you just keep telling yourself that," snorted Kish, who knew all the signs of a serious crush when he saw them.

Tart's cell phone rang suddenly. Only one person would call Tart before noon. "Hello?" the alien asked uneasily, answering the video phone.

Sure enough, Pudding's face appeared on the screen. "Tar-tar! I _seriously _need some help at my house. Chincha wrecked his room, and all the kids are going—Honcha put that down!"

"I'll be right over," Tart promised. He hung his phone up, his face paler than usual, dread etched on his youthful features. "This is it then." He willed his voice not to break.

He couldn't have known that down on the planet, Pudding placed the phone back in its receiver, took a shuddering breath, and fought back tears. "This is it, then," she whispered.


	2. Well THAT worked well

**Disclaimer: If I owned Tokyo Mew Mew, Ichigo and Kish would be together, Masaya would have discovered his love for Mint… yeah. I don't own it.**

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

Pudding sat down on the couch to wait for the entire five seconds it would take for Tart to appear. She was armed with the non-teleporting injection created by Ryou and Keiichiro, but her stomach churned at the thought of using it to hold one of her friends hostage. She just… didn't want to hurt Tart.

Forget didn't want to—she _couldn't! _The yellow monkey mew dropped the injection on the ground just before Tart came.

Bad idea. _Very _bad idea. "Pudding, I'm so sorry," whispered Tart, looking uncharacteristically sad. He didn't really know why this saddened him, but it did. The young alien seized the girl by her arm and teleported her to the ship.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

"Tar-tar! That was mean!" yelled Pudding as soon as her feet touched the ground. The child brushed herself off indignantly as she surveyed her surroundings. "Why did you do that na no da?"

"Well, it was Kish's idea…" Tart's words faltered under her glare. "I know, I _know! _I'm _sorry, _okay?"

Apology having been made, Pudding's anger vanished and she reverted back to her usual, cheerful self. "Well, that's okay! After all, I was told to kidnap _you!"_

"What?" yelped Tart, shocked that, well, that the mews would sink that low.

"Yeah, but blame Shirogane-san. It was his idea, not mine!"

"Erm, yeah well, don't worry, he'll know it's not your fault you didn't take me. Kish is going to Café Mew Mew right now to make a ransom demand."

"Um, that's not a good idea…" Pudding began.

"Why not?" Tart asked, confused. _He _didn't really see any flaws in their plan. What could the mew mews do to prevent them from carrying it through?

"Well, because we were going to take whichever of you we got first. Except Pai. Mint said she didn't think you'd even want Pai back for free!"

"You won't be able to hold Kish," Tart reminded the girl, amused. "He can teleport! Remember?"

"No, he can't if we give him the teleportation preventer that Shirogane-san and Akasaka-san invented!" Pudding told Tart. "I'm not sure how it works, but he won't be able to teleport away."

"_What?"_ exploded Tart. He'd never expected the mews to come up with something so advanced. The alien fumbled for his cell phone, only to have it knocked out of his hand.

"I can't let you warn him," Pudding told tart, strangely serious. "I want to go back home, and I want you all to surrender and quit destroying the Earth!"

"Damn it Pudding, give me the cell phone!" Tart seethed. The child rarely cursed, but he was angry now. He was _really _angry! This was just… unjust!

"You shouldn't curse, it's bad," the monkey girl preached, still holding the phone out of her younger friend's reach—not that that was hard. Tart seemed to have forgotten his ability of flight and was now standing on his tiptoes, trying in vain to grab the phone.

"Just give me my phone back!" the boy screamed, frustrated.

"Catch me first!" taunted Pudding. The girl took off down the hallway of the ship, racing away with the phone.

"Pudding, wait!" yelled Tart, dread coiling in his chest. The yellow mew mew had no idea what could happen. If Pai was around… "Watch out for—"

Slam! Pudding ran right into Pai, bounced off the eldest alien, and landed hard on her back. Pai planted his foot on her stomach to prevent the girl from escaping. "Well well, what have we here?" Pai asked softly, staring coldly into the girl's suddenly terrified face.

"Pai!" Tart skidded into the hall, his faced flushed, breathing hard. It appeared he'd still forgotten his abilities of teleportation and flight. "Pai, let her up!"

"Oh, most certainly," Pai agreed. The purple-haired alien hauled Pudding to her feet. "After all, she's human. She'll have to walk to reach the torture chamber." The man's lip curled into a malevolent sneer.

"No Pai, wait!" Tart seized Pudding's other arm and tried in vain to hold his ground. What had been funny when it was Masha they'd caught suddenly… wasn't. "Pai, you can't torture her!"

"Why not?" the older alien queried lazily. "She's a human; even worse, she's one of our greatest enemies. This girl is a mew mew, which I assume is why you took her. Besides, I haven't had a victim to torture since that fluff-ball months ago. I've wanted to test the pros and cons of acids over bases for a while now." Throughout this small speech, the man's voice remained dangerously quiet.

Pudding's breathing was shallow with terror. She'd seen the state Masha had been left in. "I haven't _done _anything!" she gasped.

"I don't care," Pai replied dismissively. "You're a human. You're destroying your beautiful planet for your own petty conveniences, while my people lie dying on the world we were forced onto! That alone is reason for a slow, painful death!"

"No—Pai, we're holding her for ransom! She has to stay okay; it'll give us more to bargain with!" Tart protested, still catching his breath from his sprint through the hallways. Tart wasn't in very good running shape.

"Fine then, I won't _permanently _harm her," Pai conceded. As he spoke, the man was inexorably dragging the kidnapped girl towards a door labeled with strange symbols.

"Don't hurt her at _all!" _Tart begged. Why did he care? It was Kish who considered Pudding a friend, not him! Pudding was annoying!

The group was nearly at the torture chamber when Pai's cell phone rang. The alien rolled his eyes, not recognizing the number. He wondered vaguely if he could kill someone through the phone. "What?" the alien snapped, answering it.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Kish sighed and pushed open the door to Café Mew Mew. Ichigo was going to kill him over this, he just knew it. Even though the café opened at six-thirty in the morning during the summer, there were rarely customers until eight. This was the case now.

"Hello! Welcome to Café… Mew…" Ichigo's voice trailed off as she looked up into Kish's face.

"Alien, alien!" Masha called frantically, popping up over Ichigo's shoulder.

"Hey, chill out! I'm not here to fight," Kish protested, spreading his hands out, keeping a slight distance back.

"You're right, you're not!" Unheard even by Kish's large ears, Zakuro had snuck up behind him. The model now grabbed Kish by the back of the neck. "Ichigo, where's the injection?"

"Here!" the cat mew called, scrambling to find the shot. The girl emptied the sinister looking liquid into one of the veins of Kish's arm.

"No! What the hell is that?" Kish yelped, suddenly afraid. Enemies and injections just didn't seem like a good combination to the teenager. Ichigo released his arm and Zakuro released his throat at the same time. Kish stumbled backwards, rubbing his neck with the arm that hadn't been stabbed with a needle.

"It will keep you from teleporting," Zakuro informed him coldly. "Now what were you here for?"

"Maybe I won't tell you. Maybe I'll let you figure it out yourself," snarled Kish. He felt a little bit… hurt, yes that was the word. He felt hurt that Ichigo would do such a thing to him, even though he knew that Ichigo hated him as much as he loved her. That didn't dull the jab to his heart that she would give him something to block one of his important abilities.

"Pudding-san's late," complained Lettuce as she walked out of the kitchen, drying her hands on her apron. The girl stopped at the sight of Kish and the empty needle in Ichigo's hand. Her face seemed to fall slightly, and Kish wondered why.

"Well, yes, she is," Kish told the porpoise mew. "Hm, I wonder why that could be, don't you?" he asked Ichigo and Zakuro.

"So that's what you're here for." Ichigo's eyes narrowed to slits as she glared at the alien. "What have you done to Pudding?" she demanded.

"Oh, don't worry, she's alive and well and on the ship," Kish stated. "And guess what? You all aren't getting her back until we get a mew aqua. Sorry!"

"Are you out of your _mind?" _exploded Ichigo. "Well, _you _aren't going back without the promise to leave Earth!"

"All right, but we'll have to leave with Pudding," Kish replied. "I don't think you want that. Why don't you call Pai and work everything out?"

Ichigo glared at her stalker. "What's Pai's phone number?" she asked the teenager tightly. The girl dialed the number as he gave it to her and waited for Pai to pick up.

"Aotabemono Pizza, how may I help you?"

The leader of the mew team slammed her phone shut. "Funny," the girl snarled, glowering at the boy. "You're in no position to be making jokes."

"Ichigo, you are _not _going to hurt him," Mint warned her friend. The snobby rich girl had been watching the proceedings from a nearby table, 'taste-testing' a new brand of tea. She set the cup down now to try and help. "Really Kish, what's Pai's phone number? We need to negotiate."

"Fine," muttered Kish. He spelled out the proper number for Mint to dial.

_"What?" _

"Ah Pai, good morning!" Mint said brightly. "We heard that you're holding Pudding hostage on your ship. Well, I hate to break it to you, but we have Kish."

At the other end, Pai's forehead creased into worry lines. The alien fought to keep his voice neutral as he replied. _"Kish would have no trouble teleporting away from weakling humans like you," _he uttered coldly.

"Oh really? Would you bet on that?" Like any well-bred, well-raised young lady, Mint was able to keep her voice light and pleasant, ignoring the dig at her race. "Thanks to a new technology of ours, that's no longer the case. Now, we want Pudding back, and we want you to surrender, then you may have Kish back."

_"Well we want Kish back, and a mew aqua, and only then will Pudding be let go,"_ Pai replied angrily.

Kish, who'd been sitting quietly until that moment, leapt up and grabbed the phone from mint. "Pai, it's me! Just hold out for the mew aqua, don't worry about me!" No matter what was said about him, Kish wasn't selfish. He just wanted them to get a mew aqua. They could save him when their savior awakened.

"Give me that!" snapped Mint, snatching the phone from their captive. "Well how about a compromise then. Kish for Pudding, is that fair?"

Kish seized the phone again and backed away from his keepers. "Pai don't settle for anything less than a mew aqua!" he yelled into the device. "Don't let anything influence you—"

Mint leapt for her cell phone. Kish flew up out of reach and hovered just barely out of her reach, secretly thanking the café's high ceilings. "I'll be fine! Don't give her back for anything other than—"

Zakuro grabbed Kish's foot, yanked him down, and handed Mint's phone back to the girl. Mint smiled brightly at the older girl then took the phone back, her face hardening again. "Well?" she demanded of Pai.

_"You heard him, same as me."_ Pai's voice was cool and professional over the phone. You'd never have seen the pain on his face at condemning his friend to god-only-knows-what. _"A mew aqua. Otherwise you won't get Pudding back. Oh, and you'll want to give us back Kish as well. We'll need him if you want your precious friend back unharmed."_ The phone clicked shut on the other end before Mint could reply.


	3. Not What You'd Expect

**Disclaimer: If I owned Tokyo Mew Mew I would have made Ichigo much smarter than she is and the mew mews and the aliens would be friends as well as enemies… which would be confusing, so it's a good thing I don't own it!**

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

"Great. Now what are we going to do with Kish?" Mint asked morosely, staring at her phone.

"We need to give him back," Lettuce whispered, her face ashen with fright. "You heard him, he'll hurt Pudding!"

"No," Zakuro stated flatly. When the others turned to look at her, she elaborated her reasons for not wanting to give their prisoner back. "If we give him up, we'll lose our only leverage, and what's there to stop them from hurting Pudding then? If they hurt Pudding, we'll hurt Kish, it's as simple as that."

"Will you please not talk about me as though I'm not here?" Kish asked sourly. He really hadn't been expecting his plan to backfire this badly, he'd admit. This pissed him off. Although… losing his ability to teleport hardly made him helpless…

Under his breath the alien called his dragon swords. As the mew talked over Kish's fate while ignoring anything he said or did, Kish rose into the air and prepared to teleport—

The air exploded, and Kish was hurled forward. The teenager slammed into one of the café's pink walls and bounced back onto the floor. He grunted in pain at the impact and rolled onto his back, panting for breath. He couldn't believe the energy that had sapped from him!

Ichigo leapt up from her chair and jumped on Kish's chest. The pink mew tried to wrestle the swords from her prisoner's hands, cursing herself and everyone else for forgetting his ability to summon his weapons at will.

Well, Kish is Kish. He knew that there were five mew mews to one of him, and fighting would be useless. So he went ahead and dropped the swords, then grabbed Ichigo's shoulders and kissed her deeply, passionately.

Ichigo pushed away from him. "You stupid _pervert!" _the pink mew screamed, enraged. "Don't you _ever _kiss me! I have a boyfriend you know! Ew! That's revolting! Shirogane-san, I need mouthwash! MOUTHWASH!"

"Hey, you're the one who kidnapped me and jumped on me! Not that I'm complaining about the last part," Kish stated frankly.

"Do you think they'll hurt Pudding if I take a butcher knife to him?" Ichigo asked her friends pleadingly.

"Yes," Zakuro said evenly. "To get back on the subject though, we're unprepared to deal with holding one of the aliens. I know we all thought it would be at least a few days before we had the opportunity to get our hands on one of them. Where are we going to keep him?"

"I'm not a thing. Can't I make my own decisions?" grumped Kish. He was used to having his opinion asked, and it was so annoying to have his fate decided _for _him.

"You're not a 'thing,' but you are a prisoner," Zakuro coldly shot back. "So no, you may not make your own decisions."

"Really, what do we do with him?" Lettuce asked timidly.

"I vote that we lock him in Ichigo's cellar!" crowed Mint.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Why _my_ cellar? Did you all forget that he's stalking me? Do you know how unsafe that is?" Ichigo asked nervously.

"I resent that statement," muttered Kish. Like he'd ever actually hurt her!

"Because your dad is the one with a chainsaw," Mint told her. "It'll be easier to keep him under control."

"Fine, one second," Ichigo sighed. "Let me get some stuff from the lab then, okay?"

"Why? What do you need from the lab?" Lettuce asked apprehensively. She still wasn't a big fan of the whole kidnapping idea.

"Well, I need more teleportation preventer if he's staying at my house, I need sedatives in case I need to calm him down, and I need some stuff to keep him in check because _he is stalking me!_ That can also be used in revenge if they hurt Pudding." Ichigo picked up an empty plastic back from the stash hanging on the doorknob to the kitchen and went down into the lab. When the girl returned the plastic bag was bulging, no doubt full of sinister chemicals that Ichigo didn't know the effects of and the like.

"Do I have to sedate you, or will you come quietly?" Ichigo asked her victim. "No—you know what? I don't think I trust you." The girl pulled a needle filled with some type of liquid out of the bag. "Kish, give me your arm," the mew commanded.

Kish couldn't read Japanese, but no way was he letting that foreign substance get anywhere near him! "Over my dead body!" the boy snapped, stepping away from the pink mew mew.

"It's not going to hurt you," Ichigo growled impatiently, "but _I _might if you don't calm down and cooperate!"

Kish looked at the girl's face and decided she was serious. Trapped, angry, scared, and annoyed, the boy gingerly held out his arm, ready to teleport if—wait. He couldn't teleport anymore. Damn it!

Seeing Kish go off in thought, Ichigo took her chance. She jammed the needle into Kish's arm and emptied the injection into his bloodstream, then stepped back and threw the used needle into the café's nearest trash can.

The puncture of the needle jerked Kish back to awareness, just a little too late. "Wow Ichigo, couldn't have made that just a _little _less gentle, could you?" the boy growled. Something felt wrong. Why was he groggy? The teenager shook his head, but his mind didn't clear. "Wha… what'd you do t'me?" the alien asked, his voice slurred from the drug.

"I gave you a mild, fast-acting sedative," Ichigo replied. "I don't feel like having to deal with you making a million escape attempts on the way home. Let's go. And for God's sake, walk normally!" she snapped as the boy swayed and staggered with each step. She took his hand to steady him and led her captive out of the café.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Pai glared at his cell phone before stowing it away in disgust. "Great, just great! If we torture our captive, they'll hurt Kish!"

"Yeah, I know," Tart agreed. "I think so too. So you can't hurt her without endangering Kish, okay?"

Scowling, Pai released Pudding's arm. "If we even get the _slightest _hint of Kish being in discomfort or pain, it will mean a long session of torture for you, is that clear?" the purple haired alien warned the human girl. "Tart, I leave her to your charge. She is not to do anything or go anywhere without permission, and I don't want her bothering me. Got it?" The eldest alien opened the door to the torture chamber and disappeared inside. Before the door closed, Pudding caught a glimpse of some kind of rack, a set of shackles that appeared to be connected to a board by wires, a few other doors, and several securely locked cabinets. The monkey girl swallowed hard at the fate she'd just barely escaped.

"Pudding, come on," Tart urged, tugging her arm. "Let's go before Pai changes his mind."

"Why… why did you try to save me?" asked Pudding wonderingly. She waited a few seconds, then suddenly turned and glomped Tart for all she was worth. "I knew we were friends! Thank you Tar-tar!"

"Gyah!" cried Tart. "Get off, you're strangling me!" The young alien's face was turning bright crimson—no way though, would he tell Pudding that it wasn't because of the tightness of the hug. Well the hug had been a rib-breaker, but that wouldn't have turned his face so red… what was he _thinking?_

"Whoops! Sorry Tar-tar," giggled Pudding, releasing Tart from the death-grip hug.

"It's okay," mumbled Tart, wondering what had come over him. Damn it, why wouldn't he stop blushing? It wasn't like he _liked _the hyper, annoying monkey girl. Did he? No, of course not!

"Come on," Tart muttered, to cover his embarrassment. The idea was good, but the feeling tripled when Pudding slipped her hand into the young alien's.

"You lead the way Tar-tar!" the girl chirped cheerfully.

"Stop calling me that!" Tart yelled, mostly out of habit. In away, the ten year old almost liked it when Pudding called him Tar-tar.

Wait—no! Of course he didn't! He _hated _being called Tar-tar! Yeah. He hated it.

"Tar-tar? Why are you just standing there? I thought you wanted to leave," Pudding reminded the boy. She repressed a giggle, wondering if he'd yell at her for using his nickname again. Tart looked so cute when he yelled!

"What? Oh yeah," Tart agreed, not registering that Pudding had called him 'Tar-tar' again. The boy started off walking towards the living room-area if the ship.

"Walking's so boring na no da! Let us skip!" squealed Pudding. Tart suddenly found that he was being dragged off by the force known as 'Pudding skipping while holding Tart's hand.'

"Ah! One problem!" called Tart, digging his heels into the floor.

"Hm? What is it Tar-tar?" Pudding asked, halting suddenly and nearly pulling the small alien over.

"Well… I've never skipped in my life. I don't know how," Tart admitted.

Pudding stared at her friend in shock. "You don't know how to skip?" the girl whispered in horror. "Well you must learn na no da!" The monkey mew dropped the alien's hand and walked a few paces in front of him, before turning around to face the boy.

"Observe," the mew mew ordered. "Drum roll please!" she called. After a pause, the girl sighed. "You were supposed to give me a drum roll, silly," she informed Tart.

"Huh?" Tart asked, nonplussed.

"Oh, never mind," Pudding groaned, rolling her eyes. "Copy me now Tar-tar!" Pudding took off skipping in circles.

Tart stared at the flash of orange. He tried to copy the skipping girl, tripped, and sprawled at her feet, much to his humiliation. Pudding tripped and landed on his stomach, knocking the wind out of the smaller child.

"Ah! I'm sorry!" Pudding cried, leaping to her feet and brushing herself off. "Are you okay Tar-tar?" she asked, extending her hand out to the blushing, fallen boy.

"Yeah," Tart assured her, pulling himself to his feet then dropping her hand like a hot coal. "Do you think we could just… walk?"

"Okay, okay, party-pooper," Pudding agreed grudgingly. The girl took Tart's hand in hers again and the two of them started back to their original destination.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

**Everyone pay attention to the difference between Pudding's situation and Kish's situation! It's actually relevant. Wow, chap. 3, that one took a while to type… probably because I was watching Charlie the Unicorn at the same time. Heheh… Well I'll try to get chapter four up soon or else my sister will kill me!** **And maybe you all will too, I don't know.**


	4. An eye for an eye

**Disclaimer: TMM would be a little more sadistic if I owned it… I'm just evil like that. But it's not, because I don't own it. Lucky TMM.**

**A/N-Well, Ichigo's slightly out of character in this chapter I'm afraid! But… we introduce her dad! Aren't you happy for Kish?**

**Well, by the way I'm going to put up a list of certain and possible pairings from this fic—I still haven't finished writing the whole rough draft! If you want any changes on the set up pairings, tell me NOW before it's too late!**

**Certain: PuddingxTart, RyouxLettuce, One-sided PaixLettuce.**

**Possible: IchigoxKish, IchigoxMasaya. I might come up with more. As I said before give me your input and tell me about the fixed pairings now so that I can decide if I need to change some things!**

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

Kish walked tiredly next to Ichigo, unfocused and disjointed. He obligingly sat in the cellar at Ichigo's orders, until a few hours had passed and he could focus again.

"I've been kidnapped, drugged, robbed of my powers, and locked in a cellar," Kish exclaimed disbelievingly. "How does the plan backfire this badly?" the emerald-haired alien asked aloud, pushing in vain on the cellar doors. The slabs of wood wouldn't budge, even when Kish used his inhuman strength. The teenager vaguely remembered seeing several concrete blocks sitting outside the cellar—right? He couldn't remember; the trip to Ichigo's was fuzzy in his mind. If they had been there, maybe they were on the doors. Or the doors could be locked. Both were possible.

Kish sat back, defeated and scared. The boy _hated _being scared. It made him feel so weak and helpless, and he certainly hated feeling weak. "This—I mean, I _know _Ichigo hates me, but I didn't think the rest of the mews did," Kish complained. "Why would they agree to this then?"

Kish thought bitterly that Pudding was undoubtedly enjoying herself, if Tart was keeping her and Pai separated. Knowing Tart, that was the case. The little twerp thought he was so good at hiding his crush on the monkey girl. Pai was one of the few members of their race that wasn't of the opinion that being held captive was traumatic enough. Tart believed what the majority thought; that you should treat your prisoners well to make up for it. It appeared that humans were more like Pai.

"Will you _please _let me out?" Kish yelled, pounding futilely on the door. "Hey! You can't just keep me locked in here! This isn't justice!"

Kish continued screaming until he heard a movement outside, and Ichigo yelled back. "You're being way too loud you idiot, now shut up!"

"You're yelling too! Hypocrite!" Kish shouted back at the top of his lungs. Dang his throat was starting to hurt!

"Do you want me to come down there with sulfuric acid?" Ichigo demanded to know angrily.

"No, I want you to let me out of here!" Kish roared back. "This isn't right!"

Kish heard a muffled voice outside, but he couldn't make out the words. The person speaking must have been far away. "I'm just yelling at my stalker!" Ichigo cried, undoubtedly in reply.

"I am not a stalker!" Kish yelled back, slightly hurt. Okay, there had been that one time outside Mint's house… that might have been creepy… and all right, he had followed her down an alley—_once. _

The teenager's keen ears picked up some sort of shifting outside. "Just don't permanently hurt him dad. We need him pretty much unharmed," Ichigo's voice said.

Kish went pale—meaning entirely white, because you can't get that much paler than Kish! He had seen Ichigo's dad when he'd been spying on Ichigo—spying wasn't stalking, by the way. He knew the man was evil to boys that were around Ichigo's age and had even seen her in the passing. Worse, Ichigo had just told her dad that he was a stalker!

It wasn't comforting when the man entered the cellar with a chainsaw.

"So _you're _the boy who's been stalking my daughter!" Mr. Momomiya roared, his eyes flaming, blue lightning bolts dancing around his body. No no, I kid you not, he was literally sprouting fire and lightning.

"No—no, I'm not stalking her! She's blown a couple incidents out of proportion!" Kish protested, looking fearfully around. There appeared to be no escape. Why was this happening to him? What had he done wrong? "Forget _me _stalking her, _she _kidnapped me!" The boy's breath was coming in shallow gasps as he finished his speech. He did not like the look of that chainsaw. It looked painful.

That would undoubtedly be because chainsaws are painful.

"Ichigo would only do something like that to someone who really deserved it!" Mr. Momomiya snarled, turning the chainsaw on.

"Dad, seriously, don't hurt him too badly!" Ichigo warned. She looked like she regretted ever letting her dad know that Kish was there.

"I won't," Mr. Momomiya assured his daughter, although an evil expression was forming on his face. "What would give you the idea that I'm going to hurt him badly?"

"Ichigo, you know if I get hurt Pai will hurt Pudding ten times worse!" Kish screamed over the noise of the chainsaw, praying the girl could still hear him as her father advanced on him. Fear made him act slightly uncharacteristically; the boy never begged! Perhaps it was the lack of his teleportation power and the low ceiling that prevented flying which made him feel so powerless.

"It's a good thing Pai won't find out." Kish couldn't hear Ichigo, but he read her lips as she spoke. "Not even the other mews will have to find out!"

Kish backed away from the whirring blade until he hit the wall. "You never came across as a sadist, kitten," the youth commented.

Ichigo's control snapped. "Don't call me that!" she screamed, lunging under the saw and slamming into Kish. "I am not _yours _to give nicknames to!"

Kish caught her wrists and held them fast. "You shouldn't go attacking me kitten. Even though I'm in this position, you're still mine. Don't forget it."

"I AM NOT YOURS!" Ichigo screamed furiously. She turned to her dad. "Dad, please leave," she requested. She knew her dad was seriously tempted to turn Kish into a bloody pulp right now, and she couldn't let that happen. Who knew what state Pudding would be in if it did?

"But—"

"Dad!"

"I can't leave you alone with a stalker!" the man protested. When Ichigo shot him a look, the man gave up and left, throwing his hands up in defeat.

"You were embarrassing me in front of my dad!" the girl hissed, tugging her wrists away from Kish angrily.

"Aw, I'm sorry! I didn't know you felt that way about your dad," Kish commented sourly, raising an eyebrow.

Ichigo slapped the teenager with all her strength. "You are a sick pervert!" she snapped.

"Yes, yes, you've told me this many times before," Kish informed her. "I disagree. I'm not sick, I'm not a pervert, I'm not a stalker, I'm not ugly, I'm not creepy, or any of those other things you call me."

"Why did I come down here in the first place?" Ichigo moaned, furious at herself.

"You said I was making too much noise," Kish commented. An idea struck him that he just had to say. "You know Ichigo, you and I could make some noise together," the green-haired alien offered, the familiar smirk appearing on his features.

"Try it and die," Ichigo snapped in vexation. How could he flirt with her _now? _"I still have sulfuric acid with me."

"You know, you should try to be a little more accommodating," Kish complained. "I could be traumatized for life and you're threatening to hurt me. The least you could do is let me have a _little _bit of fun!"

Ichigo whirled around and stormed out of the cellar. "You'd better be careful that you aren't in severe pain very soon," the pink cat mew warned, a dangerous look on her face. "If it was anyone else I'd feel really bad for them. But it's you. You—you stalk me, you kiss me, you harass me, you're just a creep! I hope you die!" The girl slammed and locked the door, leaving Kish in utter darkness.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

"Whee!" Pudding cheered, delighted, as she jumped into the hot tub that sat in the alien's living room.

"Hey, careful not to splash, you'll short-circuit the x-box! _I _don't want to be the one to explain to Kish when he gets back that we wrecked his DDR. He'll flip!" Tart exclaimed.

"But Kish isn't going to get back for a while," Pudding reminded Tart.

"Ah, he'll get back really soon. You all underestimate him," Tart determined confidently, closing his eyes and leaning back to relax.

Pudding took the opportunity to tickle the boy. "Got you!" She crowed as Tart jerked up and his eyes flew open.

"Ah!" yelled Tart, flailing to get away from the little blonde girl.

"Tar-tar is ticklish!" the yellow monkey mew teased.

"I am _not!" _the boy wailed, crossing his arms to cover his midriff from any more attacks. "You just… surprised me. That's all."

"And you're ticklish," the girl taunted, splashing him.

"Hey!"

"Well, this is all very touching. How sweet is young love," Pai commented in a loud, carrying voice.

The two younger children looked up, startled. Neither of them had noticed that anyone else had come in. "Go away Pai," Tar snapped, mildly annoyed at his friend. "You said you'd leave her alone, remember?"

"No, I gave her fair warning that if we even get the hint that something _might _happen to Kish, she would be in the torture chamber. I'll let the two of you listen to the voicemail he left me," Pai commented, pulling out his cell phone.

Pai clicked the phone open and played Kish's voice mail. _"Pai, it's me. The stupid mews forgot to take my cell phone._

_"I can't teleport, I'm locked in a stupid, lightless cellar, and Ichigo is threatening me with sulfuric acid. I don't think there's any way you can help, but if you can think of something, please try it! Maybe if you find a mew aqua, you can just trade us for each other. I'm a little—well, I'm scared, so it would be nice if you could hurry._

_"Shit, Ichigo's coming. She'll probably take my phone, so I don't know if I can call again. Remember, hold out for a mew aqua no matter wha—ow!"_

There were sounds of a scuffle, and then the message ended. Most likely the phone had gotten hit and had gone dead. Pai stared at Pudding coldly, as though the incident had been the ten-year-old's fault. "Kish is undoubtedly paying for that phone call," he told the frightened monkey girl, his face hard, his voice gripped with iron control. "Judging by the sounds at the end, Kish tried to keep his phone. I know your race well enough that it's almost guaranteed he'll suffer for it."

"He won't!" Pudding protested, her voice squeaking with fright.. "I know my friends, they won't hurt him!"

"Of course you'd say that," Pai agreed dismissively. "I know that you don't want to be tortured. However, revenge is necessary." The man seized the mew around the waist and pulled her out of the hot tub. "Now you can walk willingly, or I can tie you up and drag you."

"Pai—" began Tart.

"Silence!" the older alien snapped. "You're blinded Tart. You're blinded by the folly of emotion! Emotion is what brings people down!"

"Look who's talking!" exploded Tart. "Vengefulness is an emotion!"

"She's our enemy," Pai stated flatly. "I wonder about you Tart, that you care more for our enemy, a person who'd let us all die, than one of our friends. I have no qualms towards hurting her, and you shouldn't either. Since you do, you are now banned from all contact with her."

"Overruled," snapped Tart, his face contorted with rage. "Just because you're—you're _taller _than me, you think you outrank me! Well, you don't!"

"We're the same rank, yes, but I'm older," Pai informed the boy. "Thus you listen to me, because I have seniority. If you don't like it, then you may take it up with Deep Blue Sama."

"Wait!" shrieked Pudding as Pai began to walk off.

"What? Must I drag you?" the dark eyed alien demanded irritably.

"N-no," Pudding answered, her voice trembling. "I'll go, I'll go—but why can't I still see Tar-tar?"

Pai was about to answer; then, for some unfathomable reason, the oldest alien changed his mind. "Very well, you and Tart may stay in contact, assuming that you do as I say. Now come." The alien stalked down the hall. Pudding threw one last, terrified look behind her, and then hurried after Pai down the dreaded corridor.

Tart couldn't stand the terrified look on her face. The youngest alien leapt out of the hot tub and dashed to change from his bathing suit to his clothes. He then teleported to Earth to see how Kish was doing. Maybe there was hope.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

**Well well well, so Pudding couldn't escape the torture forever! Or can she? What will Tart finds when he goes to Earth? What is Pai planning? Why am I asking questions I know the answers to? Well, I'll let you hang for a little. Muahaha!**


	5. Acid Rain

Disclaimer: Would I lie to you? I don't own TMM. Kish would have beaten that pansy Masaya to a pulp and eloped with Ichigo by the end of the second manga if I did!

Well folks, I'm pretty sure this is the shortest chapter so far of the eighteen or so I have pre-written, sorry about that.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

"Shit, Ichigo's coming," Kish whispered hurriedly into the phone as he heard the shifting of cinderblocks overhead. "She'll probably take my phone, so I don't know if I can call again," the alien told his friends. He heard the lock click, and the door swung open, flooding the cellar with light. Ichigo stood at the entrance. She saw Kish holding the phone, and a look of fury crossed the girl's face. She stormed into the cellar as Kish backed into a corner.

She was getting too close; she'd have it in a second. "Remember, hold out for a mew aqua, no matter wha—ow!" he yelped as Ichigo swiped his arm with her extended cat claws, causing the golden-eyed alien to drop his phone.

Ichigo reached for the cell at the same time as Kish. "Give it to me!" she hissed, her hands scrabbling over the floor, over Kish's arms, trying to seize the phone before her captive did. Finally the leader of the mew team's foot connected with the small, silver device. The object skidded away and smashed into a wall, then broke.

"You _baka!"_ Ichigo seethed furiously. "You should have told me that you still had your cell phone!"

Kish raised an eyebrow. "You didn't ask," he stated truthfully.

Ichigo attempted to slap the boy. He ducked out of the corner, causing her to miss and hit the wall instead. "Jeez, what'd I do _this _time?" the teenager complained. "I was just telling the truth!"

Ichigo seized Kish's arm and slapped at him again, this time connecting with the side of her victim's head. "Ooh, she's feeling feisty," Kish teased, knowing it would anger the girl.

"Oh, that's it!" Ichigo yelled, infuriated, losing control. "I cannot _believe _that you're hitting on me at a time like this!" The girl grabbed a small bottle out of her purse and uncapped it. Again, Kish couldn't read Japanese, but it looked suspiciously like sulfuric acid. Well, she had warned him…

"Oh shit," Kish muttered nervously, attempting to bolt. No once could have told if it was an accident; it happened so fast that neither of them could have said if Ichigo meant to do it or not. The pink cat mew took a step after her prisoner and sloshed a good bit of the strong acid onto the slightly sloped floor. The liquid raced across the floor and streamed over the alien's feet, splashing up when it hit the obstacles to land on his lower legs as well, eating through the wraps with ease.

Kish screamed as the acid began to eat through his skin. The alien slapped at the stuff, trying to get it off, but that only served to spread the undiluted liquid around and get it on his hands. "Fuckit fuckit shit ow ow—" Kish stopped being coherent—which in a way was a good thing—and merely threw his head back and screamed in agony.

Ichigo blinked. She'd forgotten that acid burned that quickly and that badly, most likely because she had no experience with them. "Um… I need to wash it off… crap." The cat mew bolted out of the cellar and came back down with the garden hose. The girl doused Kish with it, soaking him completely as she succeeded in washing the acid off.

Kish pushed himself of the ground and sat, his knees pulled up to his chest, his arms wrapped around his legs, his face buried in his knees, the picture of total misery. Ichigo felt a guilty twinge, most likely because she had never seen the teenage look so helpless. Yes she had seen Kish injured before, but he had always fought tooth and nail despite the pain. Never had she seen him look…afraid…

What was she thinking? Afraid or not, he was still Kish. He was still her enemy. He was still her stalker, he was still her prisoner, and he'd scared her enough! He was getting what he deserved.

Wasn't he?

The girl heard a pounding sound on the cellar door. "Hello?" called a familiar, slightly muffled voice. "Kish? Are you in there?"

"Tart!" Kish's head jerked up at the sound of his friend's voice.

Ichigo snapped to attention and bolted outside the cellar. She slammed the door shut behind her before the diminutive, youngest alien could enter. "Why are _you _here?" she demanded of the younger boy coldly.

"I need to see Kish," the child answered breathlessly. "I have to confirm he's not hurt. Pai thinks he is, and he's going to torture Pudding!"

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Pudding was hyperventilating by the time she and Pai reached the torture chamber. No, no, this couldn't be happening! She was barely even ten years old! Surely that was too young to be tortured, even Pai should know that, shouldn't he?

The oldest alien pushed open the door to the dreaded room. "By all means, ladies first," the man said, bowing mockingly and gesturing towards the place with his arms. The room had a slightly coppery smell, as though a lot of blood had been spilled there, although it looked clean enough. The shivering child forced herself to enter the room, albeit with the air of a person climbing the steps of the Tower of London.

"Sit here," Pai ordered, gesturing carelessly to a chair. Trembling, Pudding eased herself into the chair. The monkey girl closed her eyes to hold in tears of sheer terror as Pai flew easily to a cabinet and removed a length of rope. The girl winced slightly as the rough twine wrapped her arms and torso to the chair, holding her immobile.

A few minutes passed and nothing happened. Out of the blue, a drop of water fell on her head. "Huh?" the girl asked, opening her eyes and looking around. She didn't see Pai anywhere.

"I'm going to go easy on you, since all we have is a hint of Kish being in pain." Pai's voice echoed loudly from all sides of the room, causing Pudding to wince at the noise. She waited, but the man didn't elaborate.

Drip! Another drop of water fell on the girl's head. She growled and cursed the leaking ceiling. What the heck was going on?

After a few minutes of nothing, Pudding began to wonder if this was some kind of sick joke to scare her. That would be preferable to torture, but she wanted to know for certain! This was driving her insane!

Chink! Another droplet of water hit the girl on her nose. _'Oh! I get it!' _the child realized. _'Chinese water torture!' _She'd heard of it, but had always laughed it off as the sissiest way to hurt someone. So that was what Pai meant by 'taking it easy on her!'

Plink! Curses. Of all the stupid, annoying, infernal ways to be tortured! It didn't even hurt! But jeez, it was annoying! Even painful torture had to be better! Well… actually, maybe not.

Wait for it…wait for it…wait…wait…wait…where was that next water droplet? Maybe the torture was done, and Pai just hadn't untied her yet. Maybe—

Dlink. "Argh! Stupid, stupid…" She was going to go nuts. "This isn't decent!" Pudding yelled, although she highly doubted Pai cared—if he could even hear her.

A few seconds… a few minutes… half-an-hour… Clink! "Gyah!" Pudding shrieked, shaking her head, twitching slightly. "Cut it out Pai! This is so annoying!"

There was no answer. Nor was there another drop. A minute, and hour… more than an hour…

An hour and a half later, another drop of water hit the monkey mew on the head. "AAAAUUUGGGHHH!" the girl screamed in frustration.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

**Kudos to Eddie for reminding me of Chinese water torture! Unknowingly, my anime-hating friend, you helped fuel a Tokyo Mew Mew fan fic. I'll enjoy watching you writhe in mental agony when I tell you this! I know, I'm mean.**

**So… Raise your hand if that kind of torture wasn't what you were expecting! If you're reading this because I mentioned torture in the summary, don't feel let down. The torture is most of the reason why this is rated M. It's just that the painful-type torture comes later. I wasn't in the mood to be creative when I wrote this chapter. So Pudding can consider herself lucky! For now…**


	6. You've Got Visitors!

**Disclaimer: I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew… WAH!!!**

**Ok, this might be a slightly cheesy chapter… but I had to put it in. What can I say? It's weird, but slightly crucial. I have no excuses for its lateness either. I can only beg forgiveness ******

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

"I need to see Kish," Tart told the mew breathlessly. "I need to confirm that he's not hurt. Pai thinks he is, and he's going to torture Pudding!"

"What?" yelped Ichigo. No! She had to lie then. "Well, he's fine, okay? So, um… yeah. Why don't you go tell Pai that?"

"Ichigo, please!" pleaded Tart, resisting—with some difficulty—the urge to tell her that she was a stupid hag who needed to move. "I need to see him. Please!" He needed some bribery here, he decided. "I—I'll even let you see Pudding!" The diminutive alien hoped that Pudding was in condition to _be _seen.

Ichigo was torn. She knew if Tart saw Kish's burns, he'd have to tell Pai about them, which would make things worse for Pudding. However, if she kept him away, he'd be suspicious, and that would make things worse for Pudding. If she let him see Kish, then she could see Pudding… but what if Tart was lying?

Ichigo's brain wasn't wired to think like this. She'd just have to trust her instincts and hope for the best. "Come in, then," she grumbled, moving the cinderblocks and unlocking the padlock, then opening the doors and entering the cellar.

Tart followed Ichigo into the dark room. Kish, apart from having lifted his head at the sound of his friend's voice, hadn't moved from his helpless-looking position. "Hey, Tart," he whispered, then, having confirmed his friend's presence, buried his face in his knees again.

Tart was horrified. "Ki—" he whirled around to face Ichigo. "What did you do to him?" the child demanded, incensed. "He _never_ acts like this!"

"He was hitting on me again, what did you expect?" snapped Ichigo, trying unsuccessfully to dodge the question.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?!" Tart screamed at her, his words pretty near unintelligible.

"Nothing!" Ichigo cried frantically. "I didn't do anything to him, now go tell Pai to leave Pudding alone!"

"Kish?" Tart asked his friend, ignoring the mew. "Kish, what did she do to you?" the youngest alien asked, placing a hand gently on his comrade's shoulder.

"Don't try to teleport away with him," Ichigo warned. "It won't work."

"Give me some credit!" snapped Tart, secretly disappointed. He'd hoped to do just that. The boy turned back to his friend, masking his distress. "Kish, seriously, what did she do?"

Kish didn't think he'd be hurt for telling his friend—but for all he knew, he could be. In the past few hours, he'd realized that the mews would use force to get what they wanted, and to punish people. It was something he hadn't expected. It was better to keep quiet. "It's nothing, Tart," the green haired alien lied, shaking his head.

Tart grabbed Kish's hand and felt the indentations on the back of his hand and his palms. Squinting, the alien could make out the telltale signs of acid burns. "Nothing, hm?" he asked, glaring at Ichigo. "I—I'd kill you now, you stupid old hag! Except that Kish would probably suffer for it! You—" the young alien's face contorted. Somehow it looked more funny than threatening. He forced his face to relax and his fists to unclench. "Can I at least bring him some medical supplies?" he asked coldly.

"Maybe later. First I want to see Pudding—and she'd better be okay," Ichigo warned Tart.

"Yeah, she'd better be," Tart replied, not even thinking about the fact that he was agreeing with his least favorite enemy. "I'll go petition Pai—touch Kish again and I swear, I will kill you." With that last warning—one that Ichigo really couldn't take seriously—Tart teleported.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

"Please Pai, please, I need to take Pudding somewhere, just for a couple minutes!" pleaded Tart. Seriously, he'd spent two hours trying to convince Pai! Who knew what Ichigo was doing to Kish for Pudding's prolonged absence?

Or all the pain that Pudding might be in right now…

"For the last time, I'm torturing her in the mildest way possible, but it takes some time. I have to have her here for a while," Pai answered, bored. "I don't know why you're so anxious to get her out anyway. Surely you don't care anything for her?"

"Please Pai, I can't tell you—but I swear! Half an hour—I mean—she—" Tart knew he was babbling, so he shut up.

Pai sighed. The brat was really annoying him, maybe it was time to give in. "Very well," he finally conceded. "Half an hour. She'll have a minute of _true _torture for every extra minute you two are gone. Capiche?"

Tart frowned. "Capiche? Huh?"

Pai rolled his eyes. "Oh, never mind," he sighed, exasperated, before he entered the torture chamber.

"Hey, kid," he snapped, flipping the 'off' switch on the water dropper, then untying Pudding. "Tart wants you for something. You'd better remind him that you're to be back on the ship in half-an-hour or there will be hell to pay. Capiche?" he asked, certain that a human would be able to understand the human slang, unlike Tart.

No such luck. "Capiche? Huh?" Pudding asked, confused.

"Save me," Pai groaned, looking upwards. He opened the door and pushed the monkey mew out. "Half-an-hour, don't run off, and stay out of this room when you get back… unless I say so. Time starts…" Pai looked at his watch "…now."

Tart took Pudding's hand tentatively, trying to tell himself that it was gross, he hated having to hold her hand, and she had cooties. There was just no convincing his heart this—_what? _Tart wondered if he was coming down with something…

Tart shook it off and teleported, concentrating extra hard to bring Pudding with him. They landed on Earth, and Tart decided he owed Pudding an explanation. "I—well, I told Ichigo that if she let me see Kish, I'd let her see you," he explained to the astonished girl.

"Really? Cool!" Pudding squealed. She had missed her friends, after all. The girl spun around in glee, then caught a glimpse of Tart's face. Even though his face was in slight shadow, the monkey child could tell something was wrong. "Tar-tar? What is it?" she asked curiously.

"Huh?" was Tart's eloquent reply.

"What's wrong?"

"Oh…" Tart frowned. "Pudding, what did Pai do to you? He wouldn't tell me," the child added.

"Oh. Chinese Water Torture," Pudding answered, shuddering a little. "It's more torturous than it's described as. It's… annoying," Pudding finished lamely. She knew that most people laughed at the idea of Chinese Water Torture as torture… but then again, if tickling was considered a form or torture, why not little water droplets?

"Ah. Well… I'm glad he didn't hurt you really badly," Tart told her, drifting back to his thoughts as they hurried towards Ichigo's house. Tart mentally kicked himself for not just teleporting right to the place. This was more time when Kish could…

"That's not all you're thinking about," Pudding observed, atypically serious. "Are my friends being mean to Kish? No… they can't be! Are they?" she asked, giving Tart an anxious look.

Tart flinched. "Well, he's certainly not getting Chinese Water Torture," the boy muttered cryptically.

"Do you need a hug Tar-tar?" Pudding asked, wanting to cheer her unusually quiet friend up.

"No. And stop calling me Tar-tar."

"You need a hug!"

"No I don't!" Tart yelled as Pudding leaped on him, almost knocking him over. The youngest alien staggered, trying to keep his balance and push Pudding away at the same time. Finally he succeeded. The young alien brushed himself off indignantly and walked the all of three feet to Ichigo's house.

"Tar-tar? Do you ring the doorbell or me?" Pudding asked uncertainly. Maybe it was a stupid question, but she didn't want to take chances. She trusted Tart, but still… Better to play on the safe side.

"Huh? Oh, I guess I'd better," Tart decided hastily. He unconsciously grabbed Pudding's hand for reassurance as he rang the doorbell. He quickly stepped backwards, then realized that Pudding was squeezing his hand tightly. To his intense embarrassment, he was returning the favor.

The door opened a crack, and Ichigo peered out. The girl recognized them and stepped outside, closing the door with a snap. "What took you so long?" she hissed, glaring at the alien.

"Sheesh! Pai didn't want to let her go," Tart answered, matching her glare. He did not release Pudding's hand, telling himself he had to make sure she didn't try to escape. "We have about fifteen minutes, then we need to be back, and I'll be supervising the entire visit," he warned Ichigo.

Now Ichigo felt a bit bad. She had tried to keep Tart away from Kish, but here the alien was, willingly allowing her several minutes to see her friend. Of course, she'd prefer if he gave Pudding back, but… again, Ichigo's mind wasn't wired to deal with this sort of thinking. "All right, both of you come in then," the cat mew agreed, opening the door and letting the two children in.

Tart and Pudding simultaneously stepped over the threshold and followed Ichigo into her living room. They passed the mew's leader's mom, ironing clothing, and for a moment Tart froze. It appeared though, that the woman didn't know about the kidnapping and thought this was just a routine visit; she smiled brightly at the boy before returning to her work. The young alien blinked, then dashed to catch up to the girls.

Tart felt distinctly awkward as he settled down on an armchair in Ichigo's living room. He'd never exactly been in a human's house, save for Puddings. Even then, it had always been to help her out, never for a social visit.

"Pudding… you're all right?" Ichigo asked her friend as the monkey mew plopped on the couch.

"Huh? Oh yeah, I'm fine!" Pudding answered cheerfully. "Tar-tar's being really nice, and Pai wasn't _too _mean to me. How's the café doing?"

"I left early today," Ichigo replied. "I had to bring Kish here—they said I have to keep him here! Even though he's my stalker!" Ichigo turned red at the thought. "Um… so far Mint has done nothing, as usual. No… wait, she taste-tested tea." The cat mew rolled her eyes. "What else is new?"

"No kidding," Pudding added, casting her mind around for another topic. "Well, have you seen Masaya?"

Ichigo grinned dreamily, and flowers of love seemed to surround her face—although Pudding and Tart put that down to an optical illusion. "I didn't see him today, but he called me. He's doing great, and we're going out on Sunday! We're going to go to the park, and see a movie, and…"

Tart's unease grew as he checked the time frequently throughout the visit. "Ne Pudding, time's up," he told the girl as Ichigo's clock showed that they had been on Earth for a total of 25 minutes. He didn't want to take any chances. "Come on."

"Oh. All right," Pudding agreed, standing up. "Bye-bye Ichigo oneesan!"

"Pudding, wait! Can't you—"

"She can't stay. Are you crazy?" scoffed Tart. "Even if Pai didn't kill her, he'd kill _me_. Now let's go before we're late." Tart seized Pudding's hand slightly more roughly than before, and the two faded out of view, back onto the ship.


	7. Predicaments Kish Centric

Well, it's been a while! Um… I blame… uh… ok, I've just been too lazy to update. I kinda curse myself for making these chapters so long sometimes…

**Disclaimer: Hm, yup, I'd write Tokyo Mew Mew fan fiction even if I owned it! Sad but true. However, I don't own it. :(**

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

Kish was freezing all over, except for the prickling and painful skin on his hands and lower legs. The burned skin itself was blissfully numb, but the inflamed skin around the wounds was inflamed and burned in the raw, cold air. Whenever the alien shifted his weight, stabs of pain shot through the affected areas, so he kept as still as he could, although it was not comfortable to lie on his side, off as many of the burns as possible. He also regretted that what with the cold, he'd be stiff in the morning. As though he needed something else to plague him…

There really wasn't anything for the alien to do but sleep. However, whenever he tried to drift off, his mind focused on the pain, or the cold, or the fact that he hadn't eaten in a while and was hungry, or the indignity of his situation. The boy tried to come up with some idea of the time, but could only guess that it was after sunset. No way would it be this cold otherwise—it was only September after all.

Cold? Kish mentally kicked himself. He couldn't call _this _cold, not when he thought back to his home world! He must have grown soft, to consider this cold. On his world, the sun broiled the surface, making it impossible to live above ground. Under ground, the atmosphere was damp, and the temperature never exceeded ten degrees Celsius. The air beneath ground was just barely breathable—attempts by scientists to create heating systems that didn't spew out emissions had failed, and had ended up destroying a town of three thousand people—nearly a quarter of the current population of Kish's race. The teenager growled softly. He should consider this really, really warm! He was lucky.

Well, okay, so acid burns were not one of the everyday woes of his race—but count your blessings.

Kish decided to try that. "Count my blessings," he muttered. "Uh… it's warm…" _'No, it isn't' _the alien thought bitterly. He'd gotten too used to Earth weather to call this warm. "Um… well… I'm at Ichigo's house!" _'You're in her cellar,' _the cynical voice in the teenager's head reminded him. "Um… uh… I don't think Pai's found the cockroaches in his sock drawer yet," Kish uttered lamely. He'd _really _wanted to see Pai's reaction to the cockroaches though… well, maybe Tart would film it. That would be awesome. Knowing his chibi friend, he'd come home and there he'd find a video of Pai… and a broken X-box no doubt. That would impede his DDR playing...

Kish grimaced. This wasn't helping. "Um… if 9X3Y+90 and I get the answer wrong, how will Pai kill me?" Trying to figure out how his friend would murder him instantly put the middle alien to sleep, and to unsettled dreams of the alien's vague leader Deep Blue turning into a banana and killing Ichigo while Pai hit Pudding with an unbreakable ramen noodle.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Uhn…" Kish muttered, groggily opening his eyes. He wondered vaguely why him palms and legs were throbbing painfully and why he was on a hard floor—if this was a prank of Tart's, he was going to tie the chibi to the Tokyo Tower with his own shorts streamers!

Wait… "Ugh…" Kish articulated, sitting up stiffly. That was right, he'd been kidnapped, hadn't he? Well, maybe it was daytime, and his koneko-chan would come to tenderly salve his wounds before throwing herself into his arms!

With his hands in this state, he'd probably drop her. The teenager sighed. It wouldn't happen anyway. Well, maybe she'd come to salve his wounds, and he'd _pull _her into his arms! And get slapped. It would be worth it though!

The emerald haired alien sketched a tic-tac-toe board aimlessly into the thin layer of dust on the cellar floor. It wasn't like he had anything better to do. However, the dust irritated his wounds, and he couldn't see, so the boy gave up after a few games. What fun is it to play tic-tac-toe against yourself anyway?

The telltale shifting of cinderblocks sounded overhead, and Kish stiffened. So Ichigo was coming. The door swung open, and Kish's eyes welled with tears, protesting the sudden light. The alien blinked the annoying drops away, until he could make out Ichigo's form. His heart began pounding hard, to his vexation. It would be so much easier if he didn't love her! He could knock her out and make a break for it—but he couldn't bring himself to do it. All the times he had threatened to hurt her, yet he'd never actually done it, and he somehow doubted he ever would. Huh. Maybe Pai was right and emotion was weakness. How was that for a nice thought?

"Kish, give me your arm," ordered Ichigo softly. She looked a little—guilty? Well, maybe she felt bad about spilling acid on him. That didn't make the wounds hurt any less.

Kish had a sneaking suspicion that she wasn't going to kiss his wounds and make them better. So rather than obeying, the teenager locked his hands behind his back and backed away from the pink cat mew. "First, I'd like to know what foreign materials you're planning on injecting into my bloodstream," he informed her, guessing that that was the only reason why she'd need his arm.

"The teleportation preventer," Ichigo replied, not meeting his eyes. "It has a time limit, so you'll need it daily."

"No! What if you can OD on that stuff?" Kish asked, sidling as far away from the girl he loved as he could. "Besides, I like my ability to teleport. It's been with me since I was… born. That stuff has scarred me for life," he added, nodding at the injection in Ichigo's hand, only half-joking. "So now I'm physically _and _mentally scarred. Are you ev—"

"Kish, I'm _sorry _about the acid already!" Ichigo snapped, her temper rising. "But maybe it'll teach you not to hit on me!"

Kish snorted. "You know you love it kitten," he teased, patting her on the head and jerking his arm away before she could grab it. "Hey, didn't your mom teach you not to grab?"

Ichigo hit her boiling point at that statement. "EXCUSE ME? WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU DO? YOU'RE ALWAYS GRABBING ME AND DRAGGING ME ALL OVER AND TELLING ME TO COME WITH YOU AND THREATENING TO KILL ME—"

"Well, you always seemed to like it, koneko-chan," Kish replied, mock-contrite.

"You—" Ichigo's face contorted angrily. Abandoning attempts to get hit arm, she jammed the needle into his neck. She was pretty sure there was a vein there…

"Ouch!" the green haired teenager yelped, jerking away and rubbing his neck. "Watch where you stick that!"

"Well if you were a little more cooperative—"

"To what? My continued imprisonment? I didn't even do anything!"

"WHAT DO YOU CALL DESTROYING THE WORLD THEN?" Ichigo shrieked, fury radiating from her.

Kish blinked. "We're _saving _the world koneko-chan. You—"

"Don't call me that!" the pink cat mew snapped, fuming. "You may call me Ichi—no, wait, you may call me _Momomiya-san. _ I'm not on first name terms with you!"

"Fine. If I call you Momomiya-san, can I have breakfast?" Kish asked, a hint of sardon in his voice as his stomach informed him that it was hungry and ready to do battle with the world to get food.

"Huh? Oh… oops," Ichigo muttered, remembering belatedly that even though Kish was an alien, there was a _slight _possibility that he needed to eat. "Uh… sorry, I'll go get some food… but you sit! And make sure you quit the nicknames!"

"Fine ko—oh nickname-less one—agh, no, wait! Wait, Momomiya-san!" Kish yelled as she stalked out, apparently very offended. "Jeez, where'd she leave her sense of humor?" the boy asked morosely.

Kish sat back, and wondered what he'd be doing at that moment if the mews hadn't caught him. Probably he'd be sitting with Tart and Pai, ignoring Pai's plan explanations while pretending to measure Tart with a ruler, then dodging the following blows. Or maybe he'd be playing DDR or some other sort of game that they'd picked up from Earth. Maybe he'd have gone to Earth to flirt with Ichigo. There were numerous possibilities, all of them more pleasant than his current predicament.

The alien shifted to the side casually, his burns all but forgotten until one of them brushed roughly against the wall. The raw tingling of nerves sent Kish's head spinning. He forgot that he was hungry. He forgot that he was bored. He forgot everything except the pain in his hand, where a splinter had pierced the tender surrounding skin. The teenager screamed long and loud, but the pain didn't stop. If anything, letting loose seemed to intensify the suffering.

"Kish!" The alien looked up, barely seeing, and vaguely comprehended Ichigo's face. His body vaguely registered her gripping his shoulders. "Kish, come on, snap out of it!" When the boy didn't respond, the leader of the mew team became frantic. "Kish! KISH!"

The teenage boy stopped screaming, but his face was contorted with anguish. "It's burning…" he managed to force out, his voice thick with agony. "Please… make it stop… please—" he clenched his fists, and his nails dug into the inflamed flesh. "OH GOD, KILL ME!" the boy shrieked, shaking in pain.

"Kish!" Ichigo cried, trying in vain to think of something to help him. "Oh god, KISH!"

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

**Ouch. Poor Kish. Sadly, you'll have to wait a little to find out what happens to him—next chapter is focused on Pudding's predicament!**


	8. Cooking Catastrophe Pudding Tart Centric

Disclaimer: With all my laziness, I couldn't even think of a good disclaimer! So no, I couldn't think up/draw TMM. It belongs to Mia Ikumi and co, nomeh!

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

Tart had _enjoying _his sleep. He'd really loved that lovely sleep. Tart loved to sleep. Sleep was his friend. Like most of the population, Tart preferred to sleep until at least five-o-clock in the morning.

Unfortunately, Pudding was not amongst most of the population. And it seemed that she didn't think Tart ought to be either.

"Good morning sleepy-head!" Tart felt a pillow connect with his shoulder—why must people always wake him up by hitting him with pillows? "Iiiiiittttt'sss… FOUR-FOURTY-FIVE NA NO DA! TIME TO WAKE UP!"

"AH!" cried Tart, flailing around and falling out of bed. The diminutive alien hit the floor face down with a thud. "Ow," he muttered, reaching up and groping for his chronometer on the table near his bed. He glanced at the luminous, alien numbers, then glared at Pudding. "Pudding, it's not even five! Let me sleep!"

"You already slept Tar-tar!" Pudding countered, whacking the young alien again with the pillow. "It's time to get up now!"

"Pudding, since I don't have three thousand siblings to look after, I value the luxury of sleep," Tart groaned, shielding his head from further blows with his hands.

"Luxury being the key word. UP NA NO DA!" Pudding shrieked at the top of her lungs, abandoning the pillow to jump on the boy's back. "How long does it take to sink into your head that you're getting up?"

"GO AWAY! Aren't you scared of what I'll do to you?!" Tart roared, trying to play the 'tough kidnapper' and failing miserably.

"Nope!" Pudding answered cheerfully. "If you were Pai, I'd be scared. But you're not!" she cried, pulling Tart to a sitting position so that she could give him a hug.

"Can't… breathe… strangling… me…" Tart wheezed, blushing furiously. Pudding was very good at making his ribs want to crack.

"Oops! Sorry Tar-tar!" Pudding exclaimed, giggling, as she let the alien loose. "But… at least you're awake now!" she cried cheerfully, almost as an afterthought.

"Yeah, thanks," grumbled Tart, staggering to his feet. The child stumbled half-blindly to the bathroom and stuck his head under the cold water faucet, which always worked to wake people up in movies.

Tart made a mental note not to confuse movies with real life as he shook the water out of his oversized ears and messy, un-pigtailed hair. He was now not only tired, but _sopping wet._ Awesome.

"Come on Tar-tar! I want breakfast na no da!" Pudding cried, slamming open the bathroom door and barging in, apparently using some psychic powers to know that Tart was, in fact, decent and able to receive visitors in the bathroom with dignity. Or perhaps it never occurred to Pudding that Tart may not want her barging into his bathroom at any time.

"GET OUT OF MY BATHROOM!" Tart yelled furiously. Did this girl have no sense of decency or what?

"Okay!" Pudding agreed, skipping out of the bathroom and perching on the frame of Tart's bed. "But hurry, hurry, hurry—"

Tart slammed the door shut and proceeded to clean his teeth and fix his hair into pigtails, then to stand and wait for nearly ten minutes while his clothes were being cleaned. He wisely chose to lock the door while he waited, because if he hadn't, he just knew that Pudding would have forgotten that he ordered her out—and that would _not _be good.

Tart finished getting ready and exited the bathroom to find that Pudding was just letting herself back into his room. "Hey! How did you get out?" he demanded to know indignantly. "That door was commanded to only open with my DNA!"

"I know that!" Pudding answered cheerfully. "I used your pillow to unlock it," she explained, holding the boy's pillow aloft.

"Give me that!" Tart snapped, jumping up and seizing his pillow. "Do you want Pai to catch you wandering around the ship unescorted? Huh? Do you?"

"Nope! But he's still asleep! I looked! Now come on, I want breakfast!"

"Pudding, not now!" cried Tart. "We have to wait for Pai to get up!"

"Why?" the monkey girl asked.

"Because I can't cook!" the youngest alien replied, frustrated.

"I can—"

"No, you can't because you might poison us and hijack the ship, and _then _what?" Tart replied. It wasn't that he thought Pudding would do that, but Pai would kill him just for taking the chance.

"I wouldn't do that!" cried Pudding.

"Well, go tell that to Pai—when he wakes up!" Tart added hastily, seizing Pudding's arm as she started off towards Pai's room. "Geez, what are you, some sort of masochist?"

"Can't you just make cereal or something?" Pudding asked, clutching her stomach and feigning starvation—like Tart hadn't spent three hours last night convincing Pai to feed her a full meal.

"Well… actually, I can't," Tart muttered, ducking his head. "You see… I kind of burned it last time I tried to make cereal—"

"What? Silly Taru-taru, how can you burn cereal?" Pudding queried, chuckling.

The diminutive alien glared at her. "Shut up! It's not my fault! Kish can't cook either anyways! We leave that to Pai! So you'll just have to wait until ten or so until he gets up!"

"Well, can't I at least teach you how to cook?" Pudding pleaded. "I'm really, really, really, really—"

"Agh! Enough!" Tart cried. "I'm telling you, I can't cook!"

"Please? I promise—"

"Fine! FINE! See what I care when you get lit on fire or something!" Tart yelled, giving up trying to resist her tearing bambi-eyes. He knew she was just faking to get to him, but, well… What could he say? He couldn't refuse!

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

"Great. Pai's going to kill me, you know that?" Tart mused five hours later, surveying the mess of the kitchen. Pudding had tried to teach him toast, then bagels, then cereal, then pancakes, then to cut grapefruit—with no success whatsoever. Juice from the grapefruit ran down all the surfaces, flour was encrusted everywhere, flakes of cereal had given the floor a whole new look, and the toaster was smoking, protesting having five pieces of toast crammed into each slot at once.

"Well, if you hadn't taken so much 'creative license…'" Pudding began, furiously scrubbing the stove. "Clean up the cereal!"

"Excuse me? Since when do you get to order me around?" Tart asked angrily.

"Since you wrecked the kitchen! Now, do you want to keep Pai from killing you or not?" Pudding demanded to know, rocking back onto her heels and glaring at Tart, hands on her hips.

"A little late for that," a bored voice observed from the doorway. "Taruto, what on earth have you done to my kitchen?"

Tart flinched and turned around guiltily. "Oh—Pai! Um… well, it's just… we were hungry…"

"We? So, you mean the prisoner told you to cook?" Pai asked dangerously.

"No! I mean, um, well, she said she was hungry, and I was kinda hungry too, so I asked her to teach me to cook…" Tart lied hastily, throwing Pudding a look, telling her to go with the lie.

"Therefore, she gave you false directions, and you wrecked my kitchen," Pai concluded calmly.

"No, I didn't really… well, I didn't feel like listening to her," Tart finished sheepishly, looking at his bare feet.

"I see," Pai said, observing the wreck of the kitchen. "Well, you two get the counters and stove cleaned, and I'll make omelets, all right?"

"Huh?" Pudding and Tart started, looking up in unison.

"You can clean up the rest after breakfast. I'm not feeling creative enough to punish you two," Pai informed them sternly. "Besides, this will be another one to remember, and to tell everyone when they get here—"

"What? Isn't the ramen incident enough?" Tart asked furiously.

"No," Pai answered. "Our people have suffered enough. We should have entertaining stories for when they get here, as well as the stories of sweat and dirt and battle that will make the history books."

"You think so?"

Pudding felt out of place in this conversation. _'Our people have suffered enough…' _So here was hard proof that the aliens weren't destroying Earth out of spite. Here was hard proof that they were trying to save something they loved, and here she was, in the way of saving their loved ones. She would have felt guilty, except that they were going about saving their loved ones by attempting genocide.

"Well… enough. It's depressing," Pai said, his eyes flicking to Pudding. Was it possible that there was more heart to Pai than he showed, and that he actually realized how uncomfortable the talk was making the monkey mew? "I'm going to make the omelets. You two, sit, and keep out of my way while I'm cooking."

Pudding and Tart sat quickly, glancing at each other. Neither of them could believe that Pai didn't seem mad—or that he'd forgotten that they hadn't cleaned the stove and counters yet.

As the three of them finished their breakfasts, Tart's phone rang. "Hello?" the youngest alien answered, answering the device.

Tart's face paled. "Wha—okay!" He dashed out of the room quickly.

"Taruto!" Pai called after him. Tart didn't hear his older counterpart—he vanished from sight.

Pai glanced at Pudding. "And do you know what that was about?" he asked the girl.

"Uh-uhn," Pudding replied, shaking her head nervously. She wasn't sure what else to say. She was a little bit—okay, a lot afraid of Pai.

A few minutes later, a worried Tart teleported back onto the ship. "Okay, now… let's go, um, play solitaire, Pudding!"

"Solitaire's a one person game, Taru-taru," Pudding reminded the boy.

"Oh—right," Tart replied sheepishly. "Um… well…"

"How about, you two midget's clean the kitchen," Pai ordered, rising from his chair. "I'm going to do research."

"Hey! I'm not a midget!"

"You're four inches shorter than the average height for your age—midget," Pai replied, teleporting.

Tart glared at the air where Pai had been. "Pudding," he began. "Help me while we clean this up—we have to plot revenge. NO ONE may call me a midget and live!"


	9. Living Arangements

Well, after my most recent review I got this morning, I decided maybe I haven't been updating frequently enough! (I should also finish my rough draft for this. Gah, not enough time, I only have up to chapter 18 or 19 rough drafted! No time, no time!) In any case, here you go, sorry for the wait. (See? Reviews make me motivated.)

**Disclaimer: I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew. If I did, Kish would be MINE AND MINE ALONE! Ok, yes, I'll stop quoting. Anyways, Kish, Pudding, Ichigo, Tart, Pai, and everyone else belong to other people. Sadly. –wail-**

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

"Ah, that took forever!" complained Tart, collapsing on the newly cleaned floor of the kitchen.

"Don't be silly Tar-tar! It only took us an hour!" Pudding cried cheerfully.

"Since when can you read out clocks?" Tart grumbled discontentedly.

"I can't!" Pudding replied happily. "But I have my watch with me. See, see?" she asked, holding out her wrist, where her cheap, orange, plastic, analog watch rested. "I've had this watch since I was six! It has served me well…"

"Uun…" Tart groaned, collapsing on the floor. "Weren't we going to go get revenge on Pai?" the diminutive alien inquired to himself.

"Yes, yes, we were, but how do we do it?" Pudding asked, her head resting on her chin as she thought long and hard about creative ways to enact revenge on Pai that wouldn't end with her being used to play darts with or something. Well, not that Pai would sink so low as to play darts with a person—she hoped, at least!

"Hm. Well, we can put lemon juice in his contact solution…" Tart suggested.

"Wait, Pai wears contacts? I didn't know that!" Pudding cried, shocked.

"Well _duh _you wouldn't know it! Like anyone'd have a reason to tell you!" Tart rolled his eyes, exasperated. Sheesh.

"Okay, that's good… and water balloons in his pillows!" Pudding threw out.

"Yeah, and… oh-ho-ho! Karaoke."

"Ka—Tar-tar, I can't sing," Pudding replied.

"Good! I can't either. It'll be funny. Besides, every day Pai works out listening to an old 98 degrees tape. I'm not supposed to know he listens to outdated human music, but… yeah. I do. Anyways, It'll come as a shock to him if suddenly a different tape is in there!"

"Hah! Brilliant!" Pudding giggled. The two dastardly young villains scampered off to enact their revenge.

0o0o0o0o0o0oo0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0oo0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

"I can't keep up with it," Ichigo complained, slumping into a chair at Café Mew Mew. "Aaaaah! Why does Kish have to stay with _me_? He won't shut up hitting on me, and then he went an hurt himself and I think he's trying to make me feel bad, and what is Aoyama-kun going to say if he finds out?" She didn't mention that she was a bit afraid of feeling so sorry for Kish. She hated him, and she liked hating him! Feeling sorry for him made the girl feel so stupid!

"Well, can't we keep him at the café if Shirogane-san and Akasaka-san don't object?" Mint asked.

"How would we keep the customers from finding out? He's not exactly quiet," Zakuro pointed out.

"And if you haven't noticed, these skirts are _short! _I don't want my stalker around when I'm wearing a skirt this short!" Ichigo complained.

"Ichigo, your skirts are always that short," Mint informed her crossly, ignoring the state of her own skirts. She had less short skirts than Ichigo—it wasn't her fault her school uniform, mew uniform, and work uniform had undersized skirts, and she didn't wear many short skirts apart from those. "Really, it's such a low-born thing to do. It makes you look like a street walker."

"AND YOU WOULD KNOW HOW STREET-WALKERS DRESS _HOW_, MINT?!" Ichigo shrieked furiously at the tea-drinking girl, who ignored the question.

"Um, can we please change the subject?" Lettuce asked timidly, blushing at the topic of conversation.

"Please," Zakuro agreed, annoyed. "The café opens in less than ten minutes. We should have this whole Kish predicament figured out by then, okay?

"Wha? In ten minutes?" Ichigo asked, pouting. "As long as it's not keeping him with me!"

"We could take turns keeping him at our places," Mint suggested.

"Inconvenient," scoffed Zakuro. Mint looked hurt, but Zakuro ignored it. "Look. This is turning into a huge problem. This was supposed to be something quick and simple, but it's not. This will go much more smoothly when we get Pudding back. We all know if Pudding were here, it would be logical to leave Kish with her since she doesn't have parents to worry about things, she never has to leave the country for weeks at a time, and he's not stalking her. Don't you think we should do something to get her back?"

"What are you saying, Oneesama?" Mint asked cautiously. "I mean… we can't just give them a mew aqua and expect them to hand her back to us unharmed—and if we give them a mew aqua, what if they just kill her anyways, then kill us all?"

"No, a mew aqua's out of question," Zakuro replied. "Obviously. It would be the stupidest move we ever made. But if we make it look like Kish is being seriously threatened, they ought to relent. They can't be so heartless as to let him suffer."

"Threaten to hurt him?" Lettuce gasped, horrified. "That's—that's indecent! We can't just—"

"Lettuce, please. It's not like we'd really hurt him, unless something drastic happened, like they began to harm Pudding and we found out," Zakuro said, attempting to reassure the porpoise mew.

"No. No. This is why I was so against this," Lettuce stated, her voice firm—an unusual occurrence with the shy green mew. "This is low. Really low. We're supposed to be above this, we're supposed to be the good guys! If we even threaten to hurt Kish, god knows what they'll do to Pudding!"

"Well, someone has to take the initiative, even if it's just threats," Zakuro told her. "Otherwise we'll be sitting in limbo forever!"

"But—we have a greater percent of their fighting force than they have of ours! They should be easier to take down now, especially because Kish is their strongest fighter!" Lettuce protested.

"Agh, please, there's only a few minutes before people get here! Can we just decide what to do with him?" Ichigo demanded.

"I'll take him until my next out of country modeling shoot," Zakuro told her. "I don't have parents running around after me, after all."

"But—"

"Lettuce, I'm not just going to up-and-hurt him," Zakuro reassured the girl. "I promise it. But I will do whatever it takes to get Pudding back."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0oo0o0o0o0o0oo0o

Kish's hands, feet, and lower legs had been salved and clumsily bandaged. The splinter had been removed from his hand. The pain was gone. He was no longer hungry. Ichigo hadn't seemed happy when he'd been screaming incoherently in agony, and she's even been gentle as she bandaged him up. Somehow, that seemed a little ominous to Kish. His koneko was fiery and proud. If she'd bent her pride enough to be nice to him, then something was up. "This sucks," he muttered, trying in vain to see in the darkness.

"Zakuro, just promise—"

"I already said I won't hurt him unless I have to Ichigo. I just have to make them think I will."

A chill crept up Kish's spine. Zakuro was the most intimidating of all the mews. The wolf mew was undoubtedly still angry at him over the incident with the pendent and the little girl. It wasn't as though he'd meant to knock the kid unconscious! It was just that when there was even the possibility of a mew aqua, rules didn't matter!

"Breathe," he muttered. "She's a human. You can overpower her easily… crap." He'd just remembered that he couldn't teleport.

Kish had run out of time to analyze the situation. The door swung open, cruelly flooding the place with light. This time, Kish was prepared, and had his eyes shut to squints when the door swung open.

The alien didn't have time to react before he was hauled to his feet He felt yet another injection go into his arm, and realized it was a sedative. His thoughts began to swirl, and the teenager willingly followed the purple wolf mew out of the cellar and off to God-only-knows-where.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

**Ah, these are taking forever to write, I've found so much OOCness in my rough draft, it takes forever to edit out! Sorry. Uhn… well, I should really update Blood Type or Attack of the Fiancé too, shouldn't I? AH!**


	10. Skip it for it doesn't count

Agh, so I just realized it doesn't show anything if I replace a document

Agh, so I just realized it doesn't show anything if I replace a document! Sorry 'bout the useless chapter, everyone, just skip it.


	11. When You Wake Up

Ugh

Ugh. FINALLY I'm no longer grounded… which means I have time to sit down and write this thing. Well, technically I'm supposed to be off the computer now, but it's not even 10:00 and I'm LONELY!! Thought I'd go ahead and update… actually, I've technically been un-grounded for a week or two, but I've been fixing my AMVs… finally re-loaded them onto Youtube. Uh… well, this chapter is going to take forever to write, probably several days to a week, because I've found SO many character flaws in the draft… was I asleep when I wrote this, or just really out of it? I wonder… so… yesh. Agh, I'm rambling, on with the chapter—again, my apologies for the wait.

**Disclaimer: I own Tokyo Mew Mew when I own Fruits Basket when I own Harry Potter when I own my old horse again when I own FullMetal Alchemist when I own Phantom of the Opera when I pwn at math… None of that will ever happen, so TMM is pretty far out of my reach. –Tries using stepladder-**

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

Kish could gradually feel himself adjusting, slowly waking up and becoming more alert. As he looked around, he could see that his surroundings were as dark as they had been in the lightless cellar, although judging by the feel of shelves digging into his back, he was in a closet this time. The green haired boy shook his head in disgust—if these people were going to take prisoners, they should at least have an idea of where to keep them and how to take care of them! The alien could feel his blood boiling with indignation at being treated like this—they should at least give him the benefit of the doubt and let him have some free rein, keep his dignity.

The alien reached out with his foot and kicked the door. It barely moved, the inevitable lock keeping it entirely out of Kish's ability to open. "Well this sucks," the alien muttered under his breath, kicking it with full force. The door groaned, which the teenager took for a good sign, although he doubted he'd get away with breaking the door before Zakuro noticed that something was going on.

Kish kicked the door again, and heard the satisfying sound of wood cracking, followed by the sound of footsteps. Well, it wasn't as if he hadn't known that Zakuro wouldn't let him kick her closet down. The alien aimed another kick at the door and missed as it swung open, his foot hitting Zakuro in the knee.

Zakuro stumbled, a low hiss escaping her mouth, but righted herself almost instantly, glaring down at her enemy. Kish didn't like being on the floor and vulnerable beneath Zakuro's frightening stare, so he got to his feet as casually as he could, forcing himself to meet those horribly intense eyes.

It was a staring contest to end all staring contest. Normally Kish liked to talk, but somehow he couldn't find anything to say to the mew that intimidated him the most—and Zakuro herself certainly wasn't talking. Kish met the silent girl's eyes and willed himself not to look away. He didn't like the weakness he had been feeling, the weakness he was certain he'd been showing. Showing weakness really shouldn't be his style.

Finally he couldn't bear the tension anymore. "What?" the teenager asked, spreading his arms wide as though he really was confused and wanted to know what he had done to annoy her.

Zakuro's continued, unrelenting stare made the alien flinch slightly. He wondered vaguely how she went so long without blinking, and how she looked so threatening even when not in her mew form. The boy stepped back automatically as Zakuro stepped forwards. "Stop. It," The purple haired wolf mew ordered as she drove Kish backwards until his back was pressing into the shelves of the closet.

Kish met her gaze squarely. "Stop what?" he asked, his voice a mix between amused at being so contrary and entirely serious about his intentions.

Zakuro simply continued to glare at him. Kish could feel himself slowly withering under the powerful gaze. "You can't hurt me, you know that, right?" he asked, mustering as much confidence as he could. "Trust me, that Pai will find out." Great, he knew he'd sounded scared. He couldn't sound scared! They'd have him in a state where they could manipulate him if they thought that he feared pain.

Zakuro's glare intensified. Kish looked around worriedly for an escape, and couldn't see any. He'd have to go through the girl in front of him—easy enough, but then she'd hunt him down in her mew form. The alien hissed in defeat, sitting down again angrily. The girl gave him another sharp look, before closing the door again. Kish heard a sharp click, and waited until he was certain that she had gone before quietly reaching for the door and peeling away a part of the first layer of wood.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Pai floated high above Zakuro Fujiwara's townhouse, his eyes narrowing. He calmly brought a parasite from the next dimension into his hand. "Fusion," he hissed, more quietly that normal, sending it into the nearest sparrow.

This parasite was different from the attack ones that the three aliens used in battle, to turn the creatures of Earth into terrifying monsters. Pai sent the scout chimera to float down unobtrusively and obtain a full view of what was happening in the house. Images floated to his mind from the parasite, and he focused on one in particular. _'Go back,' _the oldest alien ordered the parasite. Yes, Kish was definitely under threat, being intimidated like that… and—Pai frowned. Bandages? Kish was bandaged? But that would mean that he'd been hurt…

Pai bit his lip. He hadn't truly wanted to hurt the human monkey girl, but it seemed that now he had no choice. After all, he'd said that if there were even a hint that Kish was in pain, he'd make that girl's life miserable, and bandages meant more than a hint. Pai wondered idly if he could break into the house and get Kish back, which would give him an excuse to nullify what he'd said about hurting Pudding. In all honesty, the girl had grown on him—he'd never seen Tart so flustered, and yet so happy. Maybe humans weren't all entirely horrible…

Pai knew he had to stop thinking that way. His only hope was to try and get Kish out of the house without getting caught, and then hide him somewhere until the teleportation preventer wore off, and then bring him back to the ship. That plan was risky and unlikely, and he doubted it would work. Nonetheless… Pai teleported into Zakuro's house.

The shriek of the burglar alarm startled the alien. "That won't work," he muttered, cursing to himself. The alien heard footsteps and threw a sad look at the closet where he knew that Kish was being held, and then prepared to teleport again.

He knew even as he fazed out of existence and onto the ship that Zakuro had seen him. He felt sick—he knew that Kish might take the blame for it. It was what he would have done if the mews had tried to save Pudding—that was the point of hostages. In a way, it was a good thing that he'd already been planning to hurt Pudding—by torturing her once for two offences, he could kill two birds with one stone.

The alien made his way over to the living room where Pudding and Tart had been spending most of their time, took a deep breath, and opened the door.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

**I give up even using my rough draft for dialogue and characterization—even plot events. Actually, I made a huge change for this chapter—it was supposed to have Kish torture in it. However, when I went back and read my other fan fiction where Zakuro tortures Kish, I decided that it was really out of character and I won't try it again. So… basically, as I'm ditching the rough draft, updates may actually speed up. –Just thought I'd mention it, as I realized that I didn't use my draft at ALL when I started typing today-**

**Warning: Graphic torture in the next chapter. The torture I write has been known to turn the stomachs of my horror-movie loving friends, yet leave other people unaffected and some people claiming that it's overdone. Just in case you don't think you can handle it, I'll be putting up signs for where it starts and ends, and I think you'll be able to get along just fine with the rest of this if you don't read the torture part—that's for little sadistic evil people like me. XD**


	12. An Alternative Solution

Ah… sorry for the wait… and I send out my personal apology to a very close friend of mine, whom I promised I would update this

Ah… sorry for the wait… and I send out my personal apology to a very close friend of mine, whom I promised I would update this weekend. Due to Writer's Block and computer problems, this chapter was not completed on time. I'm very sorry!

**There is torture in this chapter. If you think it will make you feel sick (and judging from the reviews on my other torture fan fiction, it might) then skip the italicized section.**

**The extra rules included in **_**Monopoly **_**are included when my sister and I play the game. It makes it more fun. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Tokyo Mew Mew anymore that I own the continent of Antarctica. Why would I WANT Antarctica? I'd like Tokyo Mew Mew, but that's a different case.**

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

The alien made his way over to the living room where Pudding and Tart had been spending most of their time, took a deep breath, and opened the door.

Tart and Pudding were both sprawled on their stomachs, a game of _Monopoly _undergoing progress—where Pudding had all the hotels and Tart was merely holding out by the rule that the children had added, where you steal five-hundred dollars from the bank when sent to jail. Tart looked up and his stomach tightened with apprehension at the look on Pai's face. "What's wrong, Pai?" he asked, swallowing hard. _'Don't let Pai have found out how badly they hurt Kish…' _the youngest alien prayed.

Pai's face was cold, methodical, stone. "Somehow I think you can take a guess," he replied, his voice void of any emotion. "The humans have hurt Kish. They can now face the consequences. Tart, go inform them what is happening to Pudding for their actions, and keep an eye on them for a while to see if they harm Kish for it."

"_What?"_ Tart gasped, leaping to his feet. "Pai, what happened? What if it was an accident? What if Kish hurt himself to get her hurt? Wh—"

"Silence," Pai snapped, an unmistakable edge of annoyance mixed with reluctance in his voice. "The mew mews have intentionally harmed Kish, and there's no way to get around that. Now, you will go and inform them what has happened, so that maybe they will be less quick to cause Kish pain."

Tart appeared to be thinking fast. "Can't we take someone else in her place? We don't have to let her go—that would be a bad move, I know. But couldn't we just find someone else close to the mews?"

Pai raised an eyebrow. "Such as who? Their families are out of the question: the last thing we need is for more humans to find out about us and try to stop us from regaining what is ours. The managers of that café are out of the question too—they're very well guarded. By all means, if you have a possible candidate, tell me." The purple haired alien truly hoped that his younger comrade would have an idea—the monkey girl was pale and terrified looking, and the oldest of the alien trio was startled to find that it was incredibly draining to see one as cheerful as her so quiet and know that is was his fault.

Tart stood stock still for a moment. After a moment's time his eyes lit up with a desperate hope. "What about their leader's boyfriend—the one who Kish said turned into the Blue Knight? He would work, wouldn't he? He can't transform unless it's to protect the old hag, right? He can't fight back, but they'll need him, and it'll put the stupid hag out of the fight because she'll be too busy crying for her boyfriend!"

"Rather than you being too busy to cry for your little girlfriend over there?" Pai asked dryly. Tart went red and opened his mouth indignantly, but Pai cut him off. "That's enough, Tart. I will have to torture her, I'm afraid. I will cease as soon as I found out the mew's reaction to what happened to Kish—unless it is not favorable."

"But—"

"If you're so desperate, bring the boy up here then. That is, if you can find him. I suppose I can make do with torturing another hostage rather than this one—if they are made available to me. Until that point…" Pai walked deftly past his friend and seized Pudding's wrist. "Let's go," he said to the mew, a steel edge of menace forced back into his voice.

Pudding quelled a whimper and let Pai drag her to her feet. "Tar-tar, please don't hurt Aoyama nii-san," she whispered, her voice shaking. "M… my friends won't hurt Kish… will they? They wouldn't have hurt Kish," she told Pai, her trembling words an octave higher than normal.

"They did, and they might again." Pai's clipped voice made the girl wince as he began to float, dragging Pudding along behind him for the torture chamber.

Tart slammed a fist into the wall. "Damn you Pai!" he screamed, his high voice reverberating around the room. The ten-year-old alien teleported, cursing. He _would _find Aoyama. He _would _save Pudding. He would swear it on the dead bodies of his entire race…

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

**(A/N—The torture scene begins. It's not a required read: things will make sense still without it.)**

_Pudding somehow doubted that this time she would be lucky enough to be spared any true pain. The monkey mew shuddered as she stepped through the door of the torture chamber, her eyes closed, her nose wrinkled against the smell of blood that permeated the room. The mew mew didn't see the need to open her eyes—Pai was guiding her anyways, so why did she need to look where she was going?_

_Pai stopped suddenly, and Pudding slammed into him. Her eyes flew open automatically, and she backed up instinctively, frightened beyond belief. In front of her face was a modernized—or rather, far more advanced than modern __**human**__ technology—looking version of a medieval stretch rack—which looked as though is could stretch someone much farther than her four-foot-seven frame could handle. The monkey tried to turn, only to be caught by Pai's strong grip, which seemed forceful enough to snap her bones._

_"Don't make this harder on yourself than it has to be," the alien advised, strapping her limbs to the rack. "And please don't think that I'm enjoying this. Torture is more of something that humans would resort to than our people. I wouldn't be doing this if it weren't for what your friends did to Kish. Don't try and think that you shouldn't share the blame."_

_Pudding gazed in fear at the alien. The bonds let her limbs hang slack now, yet the monkey mew doubted that it would last. The blond girl cringed as Pai headed over to a counter and picked up a small, streamlined remote. The purple haired alien his a button and set the remote down to observe._

_At first the pain wasn't so much. Pudding felt the rack move and felt her limbs being slowly pulled apart, but the pain wasn't so great for almost a minute in. The discomfort started eventually, escalating into true pain. "AH!" the girl cried out at the straps around her wrists and ankles pinched the skin, as the skin itself began to tear, reaching the limit. Both of her shoulders popped out of their sockets, dislocated; she could feel the tendons and veins in her limbs weakening. Dangling put pressure on the yellow monkey girl's wildly beating heart, making breathing painful "AIII! __**STOP!**__"_

_Pai shrugged and pressed another button on the remote. The machine slowly ground to a halt, leaving Pudding gasping, staring at the torn, mangled skin covered in irregular tears. She realized that tears were streaming down her face and allowed a mangled sob to escape her throat. She knew that this would continue until Tar-tar came back…_

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

**Ugh. I'm out of practice at writing torture. To be continued: the terrible and painful fate of Pudding! Never fear, all my Kish fans out there, he will be back, I swear to you. Well, I have no idea when I'll update next—right now I'm focusing on my Fruits Basket fan fiction, but this one is ranked second on my update list, so if I take too long (let's say three weeks or more) then you may hit me with rotten oranges.**


	13. Escape of Kish, Procuring of Masaya

**I honestly didn't intend to wait so long… no, really, I didn't. But I was pelted with rotten oranges to remind me how long it's been… well… oops. Sorry! Keep 'em coming when I wait to long… the oranges, that is.**

**Agh, I sprained my foot! This sucks… I'm not supposed to be updating, I'm supposed to be elevating it while watching Lord of the Rings. OH WELL. I can walk on the stupid thing, so why do I NEED to elevate it?**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew, because rabid fangirlism doesn't constitute ownership.**

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

Tart had never realized just how huge a city Tokyo was until his only hope was to find a single measly human amongst the enormous buildings and the mass of people below him. The young alien cursed fluently in both his native language and Japanese as he flew high above the pollution, searching frantically with someone who had the massive powers of the Blue Knight. While the powers of the Blue Knight were unmatched by anyone—even all of the mews combined—it still was not easy to find him. For one thing, his powers lay dormant in hid human form. For another thing, Tokyo was just too big, too full of life. There were more humans in Tokyo than members of Tart's entire people!

The alien dropped down to Café Mew Mew, relieved to know at least one useful landmark. He teleported into the computer room, mercifully empty, and began running a search on anyone with the last name 'Aoyama'.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Several layers of wood later, Kish stopped to reconsider his actions. His hands were full of splinters and paint shavings, rubbed raw, his fingernails ragged from trying to get under the wood. Nonetheless, the door was a good deal thinner in places. If he could endure the pain of his hands for much longer, then it shouldn't be too hard to escape and hide out somewhere until he'd regained his ability to teleport. He supposed that the biggest worry he had now was infection in his hands—not to mention his acid wounds—but even so, the technology of his people was so far ahead of human technology that they could halt and cure an infection from burns and bleeding hands in less than an hour. The alien decided that the pain was endurable and began scraping at another layer.

A small chink of light shone through to the closet, casting his reddened, bleeding hands with a garish, sickly yellow glow. Kish winced—the contrast made his skin seem unhealthy and wounded much more badly than it was—but he was almost there. He'd peeled a hole nearly the width of his thumb in the door. Now he simply had to keep it up.

After five more minutes of frantically detaching wood from the door, the teenage boy had cleared a space large enough to crawl through. His long, flapping shorts caught on the wood, shredding them slightly, while one of the ties at the back of the garments tore completely off. The boy hissed as his ears roughly scraped the wood, digging cuts into his sensitive skin. Finally pulling through and tearing a leg wrap to the point where it fell off in the process, the teenager was free, out of the now pitiful looking area of confinement. He wasted no time celebrating his triumph, but instead began to walk, cursing his sudden inability to float. If nothing else, he would hear the mew girl before she heard him.

Finally reaching the nearest window, Kish hesitated. He didn't want to risk getting all the way to the door, but without his ability to fly, was jumping out a window really safe? He knew it wasn't, but that could be worried about later. As long as he didn't break his foot or something, he could live with the consequences of getting hurt.

Kish leapt, tucking his knees up, folding himself into a ball. He hit the ground on his side and rolled, scrambling to his feet, relieved to note that his worst injury seemed to be a scraped hand and a gashed cheek. He had closed his eyes, so the cut had gone over his eyelid, but was shallow enough that the eye itself was unharmed. The alien wiped his face with the front flap of his shorts—hoping that he wasn't making things worse by getting dirt in the wound, though he knew he probably was—and then took off. Café Mew Mew would be the prime spot. He could hide out in his enemy's stronghold, where they would never think to look, and maybe even find some way to get a message to Tart and Pai.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Tart began sifting through Masaya Aoyama's room, attempting to find any indication of where he had gone. After nearly an hour of searching—an hour! Pudding could be half dead! —he had finally found the correct Aoyama house. Much to his vexation, he had arrived to find that the boy was out doing something. The alien truly regretted knocking the human's parents unconscious—it would take far less time to interrogate them.

Ichigo's house or the kendo dojo. Tart had to decide between the two places—which was more likely? Ichigo had not been at the café when he had snuck in, so she might have the day off work, making it plausible that he would be with her. Tart gritted his teeth and kicked the human boy's sensible desk, bruising his foot. "Damn it!" the alien growled, putting the pain out of his mind to think. The dojo was closer than the stupid hag's house, and it was on the way. Yes, he could check there and see if the boy was in the place. The alien teleported to the place he had decided on.

It seemed as though everyone was either absorbed in practice—or absorbed in watching Tart's intended victim trounce his opponent. The alien gave a feral grin—perfect. No one would be expecting his attack. He edged into the crowd, feeling disgusted at the feel of pushing through so many inferior beings, before he was finally certain his attack would only hit Aoyama. Not that he cared if he hurt some humans, but that would give Aoyama warning. "Ho Rai Den!" he cried, tossing his rope out, forming it into a net that sent the older boy sprawling.

"Huah!" Aoyama grunted, falling forwards and struggling to get out of the net as his fangirls erupted into screams, turning around in panic, trying to find the person that had knocked over the object of their affections. The human's practice partner had been knocked backwards from the aftershock, and seemed stunned. No one had eyes for the strangely dressed, huge eared boy that crept forward and began to gather up his rope.

"You!" Aoyama gasped, recognizing Tart. "You're one of those aliens! Where's Ichigo?"

"Hah! The old hag's fine. That's not why I need you," Tart snapped, teleporting up to his ship. "Pai needs someone to torture to get the mews to stop hurting Kish, and there's no way I can let him keep hurting Pudding. You're option two."

Aoyama's attempts at struggling against the net intensified. Tart thanked every god of every religion that he had ever heard of for his superior strength, and dragged the boy to the torture chamber. He flung open the door, his eyes searching for Pai. "Pai, I have him—" the young alien's eyes caught sight of Pudding, torn, bruised, battered, semi-conscious. The ten-year-old leaned over to the side and vomited helplessly.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

**It's a bit short for having gone so long, but I do want my foot to heal, so I really should go elevate it. Huh, who knows? Maybe I can update again soon? Monday, perhaps? I shall attempt to do so. Again, apologies for the wait, keep those rotten oranges coming.**


	14. Destructive Behavior

**Wow, sorry it took so long! I did plan to update on the promised Monday, but there was blood pooling in the bottom of my foot, and my overly-spastic mom thought I had torn open a vein, so she wouldn't let me put it down—thus no computer. After that… well, I've had exams. Sorry. And then my spastic mom's thyroid gland started acting up again, so I had to be on my toes and off the computer a lot. Finally, my stupid computer deleted all my files from my movie maker, so I have to re-upload them if I want to keep making my AMVs. 103 episodes to re-upload… but nonetheless, I have painted a target on my forehead for the rotten oranges.**

**To _Darkfire_: You aren't pestering me! I am deeply honored that you like my fan fiction enough to review so may times… I apologize, actually. Does a lazy authoress like me deserve such a dedicated reader?**

**Uber-long author's note. Again. I've gotta learn how to cut those explanations (excuses) down…**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew, it belongs to Mia Ikumi and Reiko Yoshida, and if I were to someday come to own it, the first thing I would do would be commission a sequel where Masaya gets killed with… er… rotten oranges, and Kish is the main character. Capiche? Who wants me to own it now? XD**

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

**(**_**Re-cap of the last torture scene, and then a continuation. If you don't like torture scenes, do not read the sections in italics. You have been warned.)**_

_Pudding somehow doubted that this time she would be lucky enough to be spared any true pain. The monkey mew shuddered as she stepped through the door of the torture chamber, her eyes closed, her nose wrinkled against the smell of blood that permeated the room. The mew mew didn't see the need to open her eyes—Pai was guiding her anyways, so why did she need to look where she was going?_

_Pai stopped suddenly, and Pudding slammed into him. Her eyes flew open automatically, and she backed up instinctively, frightened beyond belief. In front of her face was a modernized—or rather, far more advanced than modern __**human**__ technology—looking version of a medieval stretch rack—which looked as though is could stretch someone much farther than her four-foot-seven frame could handle. The monkey tried to turn, only to be caught by Pai's strong grip, which seemed forceful enough to snap her bones._

"_Don't make this harder on yourself than it has to be," the alien advised, strapping her limbs to the rack. "And please don't think that I'm enjoying this. Torture is more of something that humans would resort to than our people. I wouldn't be doing this if it weren't for what your friends did to Kish. Don't try and think that you shouldn't share the blame."_

_Pudding gazed in fear at the alien. The bonds let her limbs hang slack now, yet the monkey mew doubted that it would last. The blond girl cringed as Pai headed over to a counter and picked up a small, streamlined remote. The purple haired alien his a button and set the remote down to observe._

_At first the pain wasn't so much. Pudding felt the rack move and felt her limbs being slowly pulled apart, but the pain wasn't so great for almost a minute in. The discomfort started eventually, escalating into true pain. "AH!" the girl cried out at the straps around her wrists and ankles pinched the skin, as the skin itself began to tear, reaching its limit of elasticity. Both of her shoulders popped out of their sockets, dislocated; she could feel the tendons and veins in her limbs weakening. Dangling put pressure on the yellow monkey girl's wildly beating heart, making breathing painful "AIII! __**STOP!**__"_

_Pai shrugged and pressed another button on the remote. The machine slowly ground to a halt, leaving Pudding gasping, staring at the torn, mangled skin covered in irregular tears. She realized that tears were streaming down her face and allowed a mangled sob to escape her throat. She knew that this would continue until Tar-tar came back…_

_Pai un-strapped her limbs and hooked an arm under her armpits, holding her more than an inch off of the ground as he scanned the room, deciding what instruments to use next. Pudding dangled limply, trying to conserve her energy, taking in short, painful gasps of oxygen. She knew that even if she was in a condition to run, Pai's abilities of flight and teleportation would make escape absolutely hopeless. A part of her mind wanted Tart to hurry up and bring Aoyama-oniichan to take her place, but the small monkey girl instantly felt guilty for such thoughts._

_Pai nodded and walked towards what seemed to be a small, innocent looking closet-type-thing. Pudding felt nauseous as Pai opened up the doors to the box. The door was covered with thick, long spikes, and there were metal cuffs positioned on the back, undoubtedly to hold one's arms and legs still, to prevent the victim from trying to dodge the spikes. With a flash on uncharacteristic cynicism, Pudding wondered if Pai was just lying about not being a sadist, about his people rarely resorting to torture. Who else would keep a device that so resembled The Iron Maiden on board their ship?_

_The yellow monkey mew couldn't hold back a whimper of fright as Pai pulled open the door fully and secured her wrists and ankles. The device was built for someone of an adult size, so Pudding's arms ended up above her head and stretched out to the side rather than simply out to the side. As Pai stepped back from trapping her limbs, one of the sharp, clean spikes grazed his arm, breaking the skin. "Sh…" the alien hissed, biting back curses as blood dripped from the piece of iron and onto the floor._

_Pudding's breath came in ragged bursts as Pai managed to extricate himself from the small container and stepped back, his hand on the door. The girl's honey-colored eyes were as wide as saucers as his hand came to rest on the door. Slowly, torturously, the door closed. Pudding's gasps turned into screams as the door inched ever more shut, the spikes imbedding themselves deep within her skin, their strategic placement causing them to just miss all of her vital organs, sparing her what she felt now would be the welcome release from all of this torment. Blood oozed onto the spikes and dripped down a drain in the floor of the mew's iron prison. The monkey girl's throat was becoming raw with screaming, intensifying the pain. The screams finally settled into dull sobs as Pudding's vocal chords refused to endure the abuse that loud noises put them through. The mew mew didn't know how long she drifted in and out of consciousness as her blood trickled away, but she was sure it was at least an hour before Pai opened the door. The alien carelessly doused the girl in a tub of disinfectant. Pudding released a raspy cry, all that her throat would produce, and collapsed limply against the alien as he lifted her out and carried her over to where, at long last, Tart waited for her._

_**(End of torture scene! I can only hope that the information I had about the iron maiden was all fairly accurate…)**_

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Pai's eyes showed no emotion as he watched the younger alien vomit onto the bloodstained floor of the ship's formerly pristine torture chamber. "Clean that up," he ordered Tart. "After that, you may take this human and get her healed." The purple haired man knelt down and hefted Masaya off the ground, net and all.

Masaya thrashed around seeking escape from the net. The boy's black hair stuck to his face, slick with sweat from the exertion of struggling so futilely, twisted with mild nausea. Apparently, he had seen the tortured Pudding, and knew it was his turn next…

Tart couldn't say that he cared much what happened to the boy. He would be lying if he said that he felt any sympathy whatsoever for the human. His one and only concern at the moment was with getting Pudding to the ships healing station before she died of blood loss.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

**For some reason, this chapter was really hard to write… not sure why. Maybe because my mom wouldn't shut up and was dragging me downstairs to pack for work camp every 5 minutes? I shall never know…**

**Speaking of which, please wait two weeks before getting on me about updating. From this Saturday to next Saturday, I have work camp for my youth group. No internet—I just found out I won't even be allowed to sketch! WHY?! Is there a point? None that I can see. GR… I was sort of looking forward to it until I found out we aren't even allowed to bring books… So please, in two weeks (today is Tuesday, so you all know :D) you may yell at me to update.**


	15. On the Subject of Trust

**Ugh, I've been so sidetracked recently! Good Lord, almost two months… how many readers have I lost? Well, I have my next belt test today, so I figured I needed to get the guilt off my chest and update. Hoo-boy. I accept any and all… gifts… of rotten oranges.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew, as it belongs to Mia Ikumi and Reiko Yoshida. I don't deserve to own it either, I'm too lazy!**

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

Masaya thrashed around seeking escape from the net. The boy's black hair stuck to his face, slick with sweat from the exertion of struggling so futilely, twisted with mild nausea. Apparently, he had seen the tortured Pudding, and knew it was his turn next…

Pai untangled the net from around the boy and cuffed his head hard enough to stun him. The famed and feared Blue Knight certainly didn't have much to speak of in strength and endurance in his human form—at least, not compared to the superior bodies of Pai's people. The eldest alien moved to pick him up, and then paused. Something told him not to torture this boy—he didn't understand the feeling. Torture was never a particularly pleasant activity, but the purple haired alien was not opposed to is when it came to mere humans.

Pai frowned and pulled a scanner out of his pocket. There was something odd about this boy…

The human was emitting an inhuman energy. Power radiated from his being, a power similar to yet different from the power of the Blue Knight. This boy seemed to possess the exact same power as their savior, Deep Blue…

The alien blinked. Was that possible? He had always ignored Kish's suggestions that they could save their planet with just the power of the Blue Knight, but what if Kish had been correct? This boy's power signature, the same as their messiah… Was their any way that this human could in reality be Deep Blue?

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

There was chaos in Café Mew Mew. Kish's heart raced: could his enemies have found out about his escape already? The teenager crouched in the bushes, listening intently for any clues about what was going on.

"But they said he just disappeared! He was attacked and then he was gone!"

Kish gasped. Ichigo—she was upset. But whom were they talking about? It couldn't be him; he hadn't been attacked…

"But how could Aoyama-san disappear in the middle of kendo without anyone seeing who did it?" Lettuce's voice was soft and questioning. "That dojo is usually packed."

"I don't know!" Ichigo screamed, her voice scratchy and tearful. "Someone threw a net at him or something, and then he was gone! They… they… I can't believe this! Why Aoyama-kun?"

Kish cursed under his breath. Tart. It had to have been Tart. What was the idiot _doing_? This was the Blue Knight! Kish had warned him about how much power the boy held—why on earth would his friend disregard that? Why did they need Aoyama, unless they had decided that they would have a better chance of getting him back with two hostages?

The alien sighed and lay flat on his back, breathing deeply and silently, letting the pain of his scrapes and burns ease. Surely Tart and Pai could handle the power of the Blue Knight for less than a day. He'd be back in time to yell at both of them and get the Blue Knight off of their ship and back to Earth, where he could hardly damage the planet any more than the rest of his species already had. Kish made a mental note to keep a watch on Ichigo and keep her out of danger for the day: they did not need to invite the chance for the Blue Knight to transform. If his theory was correct, the Blue Knight could only transform to save Ichigo.

What a sweet, unselfish love. It made Kish feel sick and jealous. All he could do was attack Ichigo and hope that someday she got the hint that he could kill her any time, and only held back because he loved her.

"Everyone!" Shirogane's voice was loud, and harsh to Kish's ears, a note of urgency in his tone. "Forget about Aoyama, this is more important. Kish is gone!"

There was a collective gasp, over which Ichigo's shrill voice could be heard. "More _important? _Aoyama-kun matters a lot more than _Kish! _We need to find Aoyama-kun! He could be—"

Shirogane began to talk quickly over his hysterical employee's rant. "We don't know what he's up to, but if we lose him, we lose our only bargaining chip. I need you to look for him and bring him back." Kish could hear the annoyance in the blonde's voice, and imagined that he was glaring at Ichigo. "From your description of Aoyama's disappearance, it seems pretty likely that it's connected to Kish."

Ichigo's understanding gasp reached Kish's ears. "All right! Everyone, let's go!"

The collective cries of transformation were coupled with bursts of colored light that reached Kish's eyes even through the window above the bushes. The alien blinked several times to regain his eyesight, and then realized that if he could see the flashes from the window, anyone looking out the window could see him. The emerald alien mentally slapped himself and scooted backwards and out of sight, wincing and biting his lip to keep from shrieking as the pebbles on the ground dug into the burns and cuts on his palms.

The door slammed open and the teenager saw flashes of bright color go racing by at super-human speed. Kish released a small sigh of release, relieved that no one had thought to check around the café for him. That had been his biggest fear…

"Are you sure that was wise, Ryou?" Akasaka's voice was questioning. "We can track him down any time, after all. It wouldn't be so hard."

Shirogane's voice was less harsh and commanding as he spoke in reply to his best friend. "I know, Keiichiro, but if we didn't give Ichigo some semblance of hope for finding Aoyama, she'd turn hysterical. At least this way she can feel useful, and maybe we'll get a bonus and find Kish."

"That wasn't Kish who kidnapped him," Akasaka replied, soft accusation in his voice. "If they do find him, he's going to take a lot of abuse from Ichigo for something he didn't do."

Shirogane snorted. "I know, it was the short one—he's the one with the ropes. Still innocent people get hurt all the time in wars. My parents took the hit for the people who _really _hurt the environment, you know? I can't say I care if he gets hurt if it keeps Ichigo in a condition to fight."

"Do you think things are going to get worse?"

Shirogane's voice sounded farther away, as though he had begun to walk away from Kish's hiding spot. "Don't you think so? You've never gotten that feeling about Aoyama?" The fifteen-year-old sounded a lot older than he really was. "I can't trust him in the alien's hands. There's just something off about him."

"You aren't just jealous?" Akasaka asked gently.

"_No._" The blonde's answer sounded a little too firm to be convincing. "I am _not _jealous. I have no reason to be. Think closely about that kid, and then tell me if you really trust him."

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

**Okay, I'm off to update my other fan fictions now… maybe then I'll come back to this one. Wow, depressing music actually helps me write! I had a much easier time with this chapter than I thought I would.**

**FINALLY it begins to get to the main plot. This is the part I was looking forward to writing! …Of course, it also means I need to dredge up some fresh ideas, because I quit pre-writing around this time last year and only have a few more chapters planned out—after that it's up in the air.**


	16. To Clear Things Up

**Hey everyone, I've been gone a really, REALLY long time. I have no business apologizing, so I'm not even going to try. I will say that I have been a.) side-tracked by my original works, b.) somewhat grounded and c.) too tired to write fan fiction.**

**I'm not sure if I'm going to let Shades of Grey stretch on as long as it was supposed to. It's not fair if you all are constantly waiting for me to drag myself away from my novel just to work on fan fiction, because that can take me a long time—well, that much is evident, huh?**

**Now to thank my reviewers. I don't deserve you, or the 100+ reviews you all have gifted me with. Somehow, only one of them was a flame, which seems to me to be a pretty good ratio—and since that review-leaver told me their reasons for hating my fan fiction, how could I be angry?**

**Rotten oranges aren't enough. I await your barrage of rotten cantaloupes now, assuming anyone was patient enough to stick around and wait for me to update. If you were, then I think I'm going to cry from happiness.**

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

"Tart," Pai murmured, frowning at his energy scanner. "Take a look at this." He frowned—he had sent the younger alien from the room, hadn't he? He wished that he had not, in hindsight. This would be a difficult decision: he did not want to walk into it so hastily.

The numbers on the scanner screen suddenly began to scroll upwards, indicating an even higher power reading. "What the—" Pai stared. "Impossible," he whispered as the reading reached its peak and began to head back down to the level of Deep Blue's power. For a moment, for just a brief moment, the boy had emitted the signal of a mew aqua.

But now the reading was heading past Deep Blue's power level, past the level of the Blue Knight. Special energy hovered right around zero—not quite human, but certainly not enough to be a threat.

Pai frowned and rubbed the tips of his large ears. He had never seen such a phenomena—the scanner was nearly always accurate, and it had never gone haywire in the five years that Pai had owned it. Kish had once commented on the immense power of the Blue Knight, but he had never spoken of a fluctuation. The eldest alien shook his head; he placed the scanner on the weakly stirring boy's chest. The numbers flickered slightly higher. He moved the instrument to the left, and the numbers shot up. The alien shook his head and placed it over the boy's heart.

If he was not mistaken, Aoyama Masaya had a mew aqua where his heart should be.

If that was the case, they would have to kill him. They could end this cycle—a mew aqua was all-powerful. They could resurrect Deep Blue; they could destroy the humans for eternity. Earth would be saved, and their people would be saved. A small smile came to Pai's lips. _'You didn't suffer for nothing, Kish,' _the purple haired alien silently promised his comrade. _'The girl didn't suffer needlessly either. If I hadn't tortured her, Tart never would have brought us this find!"_

Pai grimaced. Well, in truth, the means to the end had been a little bit extreme for his tastes. The girl was still a young innocent—even if she was a human and a mew mew. Pai shook his head. If he started on a guilt trip now, it would be a long time before he could think clearly again. There would be plenty of time for guilt after they had destroyed humanity and had brought their people to Earth, their haven and their dream.

The door slid open. A pale, miserable Tart walked into the room, hugging himself without apparent awareness of the action. He did not look at Pai as he came up to the older alien's side and looked down at Aoyama, whose eyelids were beginning to flutter drowsily. "So now what are we going to do?" His voice was small and far away.

"Now we're going to run some tests." Pai discovered that he could not keep the excited tremor from his voice. "This is good Tart, this is very good—you did well when you suggested we substitute this human."

Tart flinched. "I hate you, Pai," he whispered, staring at the ground.

"I'm not surprised, but this is good," the alien informed his compatriot, pushing aside the guilt that threatened to edge its way to his consciousness again. "Look at these power readings." The alien pulled out his scanner and placed it over the drowsy boy's heart. "His heart is a mew aqua! This could really save us. If we kill him and take—"

"Stop it, Pai!" Tart stomped his foot on the floor hard, shaking the tiles slightly. "Stop it! I don't want to do this anymore! I don't want to kill humans anymore! You almost killed Pudding! I hate Deep Blue, and I hate you even more!"

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

"You aren't just jealous?" Akasaka asked gently.

"_No._" The blonde's answer sounded a little too firm to be convincing. "I am _not _jealous. I have no reason to be. Think closely about that kid, and then tell me if you really trust him."

Kish frowned slightly, his head tilting to the side gently. Aoyama was obviously causing a rift, however slight, in the tight alliance of trust between the mew mews and the two seeming brains behind the organization. He wondered if the two men had also taken note of Aoyama's unnatural power—though if they had, it was a wonder that they were arguing over whether or not to trust him, rather than just making use of the power. It was what Kish would have done in their situation.

Unless—Kish had to force his laughter down, so as to not be heard by the two humans. If he was not mistaken, Shirogane had sounded vaguely jealous, as Akasaka had pointed out. He must be in love with Ichigo as well, and therefore saw Aoyama as a threat. It was another weakness that Kish was fairly certain he could exploit. _'Man, it all comes back to koneko-chan,' _he thought wryly.

The sound of a chair scooting backwards brought Kish's attention back to the two men inside. "I guess we should go look for Kish as well," Shirogane decided, his voice wafting out the window. "Using the computer, of course."

"With the energy you've had recently, I'm surprised you don't want to run around Tokyo with the girls, looking for him with your eyes," Akasaka remarked gently, the scuffing sounds allowing Kish to determine that he, too, had risen.

"I don't know where you get your ideas from, Keiichiro," Shirogane remarked stiffly, as though the idea had crossed his mind. "Anyways, this is faster. I'd really like to get this whole business over with."

"Guilty feelings? Maybe you should have listened to Lettuce." The voices of the two men were getting farther away; the sound of footsteps on tile grew faint.

Kish could not make out the blonde boy's reply, but he knew that he had to get away from the café. If they could find him with their computer, then he was going to have to move. The alien rose shakily, light-headed. He took a tentative step forward, and another.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

**Ugh. I'm not really feeling this, but I really wanted to update. I think part of my problem is that (I hope) I improved as a writer when I participated in NaNoWriMo, and I'm just not satisfied with my plotline and writing style for this. Help me out here, people…**

**Expect a quicker update next time. If it takes five and a half months again… well, it'd better not. **


	17. Defect

**Okay, I'm scared to look at how long it's been since I've updated. But I think I'm going to stop making update promises, because it's boxing me in, and I actually think I waste more time when I promise to update. I'm going to try to finish this up soon, because you guys really deserve better. To those of you who stick with this lazy, promise-breaking authoress, you especially deserve better. I'd like to promise not to do this again, but you see how well I've done with THAT line.**

**So thanks for putting up with my sporadicness. (That's not even a word, is it?) Onto the chapter: It's sure been a long time in coming. Here's to hoping it's a good one.**

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

"Jealous? _Jealous! _What am I supposed to be jealous of? Lame, programmed sword skills and a job as a waiter? A ditz for a girlfriend? Stupid Keiichiro doesn't know what he's talking about." Scowling, Ryou dropped into his computer chair and turned the machine on. He glared unseeingly ahead. _I'm not jealous. I'm uptight. We're missing a member of our team and our bargaining chip. That boy's a dangerous weapon and he's in the aliens' hands. I don't have __**time**__ to be jealous,_ he thought to himself. He shook his head, his fingers flying expertly and unthinkingly across the keyboard, pulling up the location program.

_**Scanning for: Alien Life**_

Ryou sighed and leaned back in the chair, then shot upright, startled, as the computer beeped loudly, frantically. "What the—this close to the café? Is he _stupid?_" Ryou leapt to his feet. "Keiichiro! He's still on this street! We can get him, definitely!"

"Are you sure it's him?" Keiichiro called from the next room. "For all you know it's another trap. It could be Pai or Ta—"

"They have two hostile hostages to take care of. _This is him!"_ Ryou rubbed his temples, mixed feelings of elation and impatience fighting for dominance in him. "He can't have gotten far without his teleportation ability. Let's hurry it up!" He leapt out of his chair and sprinted to the door of the café.

"Ryou!" Ryou ignored Keiichiro's call; he heard the older man curse just before the door slammed behind him. He was pretty sure that he saw movement up ahead; he took off after the escaping form.

It didn't take long to catch Kish, but while Ryou first attributed it to lack of flight ability, as he neared the alien, he realized he was moving with a limp. "Stop!" he shouted, reaching out and seizing Kish's shoulder.

The alien jumped and spun, giving Ryou a full view of his scratched face and destroyed hands. Ryou yelped and dropped him, staring. The torn eyelid was gruesome enough; it drooped and hung in places, useless. His hands… _He must have destroyed them escaping,_ Ryou told himself. There was no way any of his girls would have done this, right? Not even to Kish.

"Stop? What a stupid order." Kish's voice was vaguely pain slurred; he didn't seem to notice. "Who the hell tells a victim to stop running from his tormentors, hm? Who asked you?"

Ryou frowned at the disconnected answer. Kish's eyes appeared alert, yet he seemed almost drunk, disconnected and barely coherent. "We don't have to be tormentors. You just have to cooperate," he told him, ignoring the voice in his head that naggingly suggested that he was trying to force the blame for Kish's injuries on the alien, where it didn't belong.

"Cooperate with what? Kidnapping, torture… got it. Genocide. The genocide of my entire race."

Ryou clenched his fists, barely controlling the urge to punch the alien. "We're not the ones attempting genocide here. We kidnapped you to stop the genocide—_you're_ the ones attempting genocide! We want you to cooperate so we can end this war!"

Kish looked hollowly at him through his open eye and the unclosable eye with the destroyed eyelid. Ryou didn't want to meet that tortured gaze, but he steeled his nerves and glared into Kish's golden, over-bright eyes. "You know we're right," Ryou added angrily, guiltily.

"No. No, you're not. Guess what? There's nothing black-and-white about war. It's all shades of grey. Of course you think you're right, because you think you have a right to the world you're destroying. Well, we've never destroyed a world. We've only been victims of circumstance, and you call us murderers and evil for trying to save ourselves and take back what was always ours?"Kish laughed hollowly. "We're not right either. We're murdering thieves, but you're murdering destroyers. Might as well side for my benefit."

Ryou took a deep breath in a vain attempt to calm his rage. "Fine. Whatever. Then side for "your benefit" by coming back with us, so we can heal you before you lose your eye."

Kish blinked, an odd sight with only one working eyelid. "My eyes are fine. Aren't they?" He reached up and felt his both of his eyelids. "So my eyelid's cut. What's your—"

"Advanced species when Mint lives as a beggar and Ichigo starts up a doctor's practice," Ryou growled scathingly, grabbing his hostage roughly by the back of the neck. "Come on. You're—"

Kish pulled back furiously. "I'm not going back with you! I've had enough of this stupid little plot—from either side!"

"You know what?" Ryou jumped and let go of Kish, who spun around at the familiar voice. "I agree. I completely agree." Tart's form blurred and solidified into view in front of the two. In his arms—he seemed to strain at the weight—was a sleeping Pudding. "I got her out as soon—as soon as she finished healing. I…" Tart looked ready to cry. "I never wanted this. Our people never wanted this. Kish, I… they want a home, not a slaughter. Not… not child torture. I'm defecting." He smiled sadly. "And Pai doesn't know I took Pudding home. But I can't stay there anymore. You should think a little too, Kish." He looked at Ryou as though to hand Pudding to him, but the blonde didn't make a move. He wasn't sure whether or not to trust the kid. It was just too perfect—they get Pudding back and lose an adversary, just like that? It didn't happen. There had to be some sort of trap, something that the youngest alien wanted involved in this.

"So you just… up and changed your mind. Turned around. I see." Ryou reached out and took Pudding from Tart's arms. She didn't look harmed to him, so she couldn't have been the "magical catalyst" to change Tart's mind.

"I don't know. Just when… look, fine, don't trust me. I wouldn't. But I can't work with Pai anymore! I can't!" The alien boy looked to be on the verge of tears. "Pai's trying to awaken the mew aqua in Aoyama. I don't know how it got there, what you did, but be ready. He's probably not far from it right now?"

"Mew aqua in _Aoyama?"_ Ryou asked incredulously. Tart didn't seem to hear; he simply faded from existence silently, as though he'd never been there in the first place. The only evidence to show that he had been there was Pudding, resting asleep in Ryou's arms.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

**I don't think this is my best chapter; maybe I should turn my music down. I caught myself writing the lyrics a few times, and they don't relate to this fan fiction at all. Well, this is what happens when I deviate from my outlines; I have no idea what's going to happen next. That's unusual for me, but we'll see where this goes. I would promise a speedy update, but… no promises. I'll attempt, but if I don't update for a while, I'm not going to feel TOO guilty.**


	18. Explanations and Developments

…**Yeah. Last chapter I promised not to feel too guilty if I don't update for a while, so I think I'll try to take myself up on that. (I'm biting back a deluge of apologies because honestly, they don't really have any meaning anymore….) Here is the next installment. **

……**Okay, and sheer anger mode, because my scene-separators have all been deleted!!!!! What?! Why?! Now it looks like lousy writing, running from one scene to another with no discernable difference! This is annoying bordering on obscene… Okay, so if there's nothing to separate scenes in this chapter, please understand that I put them there and they are just… randomly… gone.**

**0o0o0o0o0oo0o0o0o0oo0o0  
**

If Pai was going to take matters to such extremes, then Tart could not work with him anymore. If Tart could not work with Pai, then he was abandoning the mission. If Tart abandoned the mission, then his people would be left to die. If Tart left his people to die, then he was a traitor, the sort who would go down throughout history in disgrace—assuming his people survived as a species for long enough to record any more pieces of their history.

No good choice, no good solutions. Pai would most certainly use the mew aqua to destroy all the humans—that included Pudding. Tart no longer had any trouble admitting it to himself; he was fond of the young mew mew, fond enough that all of humanity was beginning to grow on him. All of humanity…

But there was a solution. Briefly, guiltily, the young alien remembered Kish; shredded and abused, obviously delirious, in the midst of terrible suffering. _It would have been good to get him back up to the ship for healing, _Tart thought, but he knew that he could not waste time cajoling and pleading, convincing his friend to come back on the ship. In that state, Kish wouldn't listen—Tart knew his friend well enough to say that for certain. And he couldn't waste time if he planned to hijack the ship.

Maybe it wasn't the most ethical of plans, but it was certainly the quickest and the one that would lead to the fewest casualties. If he could get the ship under his control and take it back to their world, surely they could use the Blue Knight's power to save their adopted planet. Kish had always sworn they could adapt the power to their purposes—and maybe Aoyama would even cooperate when he realized that sacrificing himself would save his precious Ichigo.

Maybe once Tart would have laughed at the boy for such _stupid_ devotion, but he had the sneaking suspicion that if he had had the opportunity, he would have sacrificed himself to spare Pudding from her torment.

Quietly, he edged towards the controls, typing the password into the system. The ship was told to stay locked in place above Earth, stationary, cloaked, a much quicker—and less draining—place to teleport than back to the home world. "Override," he whispered, pressing the button. He lurched as the ship moved for the first time in months; Pai would kill him, but now it was too late.

They were going home.

0o0o0oo0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Kish stumbled over to look at Pudding, his tired eyes blurry; his torn eyelid could barely be considered adequate protection for the organ—he could feel it drying, growing increasingly painful as time passed. "She's been healed," he pronounced, aghast to hear the slur of his words, his vowels running together in a drunken-sounding mutter. "See how red her hands are? Affects… affects of the healing chamber." The alien sat suddenly, plunking to the concrete with surprising force. Now that the rush of adrenaline accompanied by his escape had dissipated, he could fully appreciate just how weak, how pained and drained he was. "Heh. Guess Pai got mad that I got hurt. REALLY mad to have to heal her. Must have used the torture chamber, normally he's all talk—"

"Shut up and stand up." Ryou shifted Pudding to his shoulder, extending his hand and roughly hauling Kish to his feet. "You're delirious and don't know what you're talking about."

"Yeah, I do," Kish muttered, following the human into the café in a daze. "She was injured. Now she's been healed—I can tell these things." If his head would please stop spinning? "That's why Tart left. That's the only reason he'd have ever left our people to die—it's obvious he's head over heels for her. Heh." Vaguely, he wondered about the purpose of the back room to which Ryou led him. "Tell the truth, I'd've done—"

"You talk way too much," Ryou groused, pushing Kish down flat on a large, wheeled trolley. "This is the closest we have to a gurney. _Stay_ while I get some fluids and antiseptic. If I get back and you're gone, I'm leaving you to die."

"Got it," Kish muttered, leaning back against the cold, slightly scratched steel. "Just wish…" he sighed, closing his eyes—his eye. He was disturbed to notice that he could still see from the other eye—something he had not realized when he was up and moving. Was his eyelid torn that badly? It felt like a cut—how had it ripped with no damage to his eyeball?

It didn't matter.

Maybe he just imagined that the door to the café slammed open. Maybe he only heard Ichigo's voice, hysterical, shrill, and so _typical_ of his kitten, in his head. The alien smiled anyways, turning his head slightly towards the noise. "Kitten's home," he muttered drowsily, raising his head slightly as though to get up, then letting it flop back on the makeshift bed. He could probably stand, yes, but it would take an increasingly incomprehensible amount of effort that he couldn't be bothered putting forth. "Who knows… maybe…" _she'll come see me,_ he finished in his head. His vision blurred; with a sigh, Kish stopped thinking, stopped attempting to comprehend his surroundings. His last coherent thought was to wonder why it was taking Shirogane so long to procure medical equipment to treat his wounds.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o00o0o

** Because I am just a twisted being, I'm leaving it there—well, okay, I also need to figure out exactly what happens from here. I want to take a poll: how many people would be upset if I killed Masaya, how many would not care, and how many would start dancing from sheer joy? Thank you for your answers.**


End file.
